Stairway to heaven

Stolen Marc Chagall painting sells for $130,000 at auction in Israel

Titled ‘Jacob’s Ladder,’ oil painting size of a sheet of office paper by famed Jewish modernist was scheduled for a 1996 sale but was swiped days before that auction

By Marcy Oster 29 January 2020, 4:56 pm

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The winning bid on Marc Chagall's 'Jacob's Ladder' was the lowest suggested by the Israeli auction house. (Courtesy of Tiroche Auction House via JTA)

JTA — A painting by Jewish modernist Marc Chagall sold at auction for $130,000, the lowest estimated bid suggested by the auction house.

The buyer, from Tel Aviv, wishes to remain anonymous, a spokesman for the Tiroche Auction House in Herzliya told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The artwork, the size of a standard sheet of office paper, was sold on Saturday.

Titled “Jacob’s Ladder,” the oil painting by the famed Jewish modernist was scheduled for a 1996 sale but was stolen days before that auction. It was found in 2015 in the estate of an elderly woman in Jerusalem after her death.

Migdal Insurance, which paid the 1996 claim on the stolen Chagall, demanded custody of the painting and a Tel Aviv court ruled in 2015 that the painting be transferred to the insurance company. Migdal offered the work for sale through Tiroche to recoup the money it paid to the painting’s previous owner.

A Chagall painting, “Les Amoureux,” sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 2017 for a record $28.45 million.