Tamara de Lempicka's "The Musician" Auctioned For $9,087,500

   Tamara de Lempicka's 1929 painting  La Musicienne was auctioned off at Christie's for $9.09 million on the evening of Nov. 11, a new auction world record for the artist.

The work was  stolen from the Scheringa Museum of Realist Art in Spanbroek, North Holland, 1 May 2009, along with a painting by Salvador Dali, in an audacious day-time armed robbery. Shortly after the theft the remaining paintings in the museum were seized by ABN Amro when Scheringa's DSB bank failed.

by ABN Amro when Scheringa’s DSB bank went bankrupt in November

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

by ABN Amro when Scheringa’s DSB bank went bankrupt in November

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

Missing for seven years the pieces were recovered in 2016 by art detective Arthur Brand. Art theft has become a focus for European and perhaps Chinese organized crime. Authorities speculate that valuable art objects might have become a medium of exchange in the criminal underworld, since it's difficult to sell them for cash.

The work of de Lempicka, who died in 1980 in Mexico after spending the last years of her life in Houston, Texas, is a favorite of entertainment glitterati. Jack Nicholson and Madonna are known to be collectors.