THE CITY Gallery of Bratislava emerged the winner in an auction of Immaculata, a painting by baroque Austrian artist Paul Troger, at the SOGA auction house on June 10, the SITA newswire wrote. The gallery's winning bid was Sk620,000 (€20,435).
"It is good news that this unique piece of art will remain in a public collection," Ján Abelovský, SOGA's managing director, told SITA. "It was rather rare in the past for public institutions to have the financial means to buy outstanding pieces of art."
Troger’s paintings are well known in Bratislava. His paintings are displayed in the baroque St. Elizabeth's Church and the city gallery also owns some of his work, including a portrait of the sculptor George Raphael Donner. This may explain the capital's special effort to obtain Immaculata.
Troger was born on October 30, 1698 in Welsberg and died on July 20, 1762 in Vienna. He painted monumental wall compositions and altar pictures. He is considered Austria's greatest master of late baroque paintings.
