Sotheby’s has announced Kandinsky’s Bild mit weissen Linien (1913) is to feature in its Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale.

This is the first time the painting has come to auction.

Kandinsky was constantly developing his practise throughout the early 1900s 

By 1913, Kandinsky was well into his abstract phase - although the influences of his fauvist days still linger in his saturated colours and soft edges.

Helena Newman, chairman of Sotheby's Europe, said: "This profoundly powerful painting is one of the most important works in the history of art that I have had the privilege of handling.

“Bild mit weissen Linien exemplifies Kandinsky at the height of his creative powers and a painting of this calibre only comes to the market every few decades.

“With virtually all the important paintings of this year in major museum collections, this represents a very rare opportunity for collectors around the world to acquire a seminal work by this master of Abstraction."

The June 21 sale in London will also feature Kandinsky’s Murnau – Landschaft mit Grunem Haus (1909), a seminal work poised to set a new artist record.

While there’s no estimate for Bild mit weissen Linien, it’s likely to be selling in a similar price range (around the £20m mark)

Alberto Giacometti’s Grande Figure is valued at £15m-20m ($19.2m-25.7m).

Unusually, this bronze sculpture displays a gold patina (Giacometti usually left his materials as they were).

It dates to 1947, perhaps Giacometti’s most important year. This was when he returned home to Paris after the war and began trying to express both the horrors he’d witnessed and his hope for the future.

The record for his work stands at $141m, set for Pointing Man – another work from 1947.

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