MoMA in New York released this statement yesterday in response to the sale of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s EM1 on Monday at Sotheby’s:

The Museum of Modern Art has acquired László MoholyNagy’s EM 1 (Telephone Picture), 1923, a masterwork from the artist’s Bauhaus period. In MoMA’s collection it will join EM 2 and EM 3, which were given to the Museum by Philip Johnson in 1971 in honor of Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, the artist’s widow. EM 1 had been held in a private collection since 1987. The Museum purchased it at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on November 14, 2016. Mathias Rastorfer of the Galerie Gmurzynska in Switzerland bid on behalf of the Museum.

MoMA acquires László Moholy-Nagy’s “EM 1 (Telephone Picture)”