The Czech art market is growing again this year, outpacing last year’s first half sales by 10% with the number of works selling for more than $50,000 growing too. ART+, which tracks the Czech art market, said that the first half of 2013 saw 550m Crowns ($27.5m) spent.

A record 89 paintings were sold for over one million crowns. The limit of 100,000 crowns was crossed by another 499 paintings, statues and antiques, she added.

Last year, the total turnover was greatly influenced by the price record set by Czech artist Frantisek Kupka’s abstract painting The Shape of Blue sold at an auction for 57.4 million crowns.

“This year, the most expensive painting, Still Life by Bohumil Kubista, cost 18.5 million crowns,” [Marcela] Chmelarova said.

“Like last year, seven works of art have been sold for over ten million crowns,” she added.

Czech arts market reports record turnover this year (Prague Monitor)