Artwork belongs to us, says Poland

Poland’s culture authorities said yesterday a picture by Wassily Kandinsky that was auctioned in Germany for almost

390,000 (NZ$645,000) belongs to Poland, where it was stolen in 1984.

The authorities are threatening legal steps.

Kandinsky’s 1928 watercolour ‘‘Untitled’’ was sold at the Grisebach auctioneers in Berlin. The price tag includes the auction fee.

Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as well as the embassy in Berlin, say they had notified the auction house that the artwork was stolen from an exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw. They say they had protested about it being put up for auction.

‘‘The German auction house has acted like a receiver of stolen goods,’’ Poland’s culture minister Piotr Glinski said on Twitter.

The abstract composition on cardboard bears the Polish museum’s stamp on the reverse. Kandinsky, who lived from 1866-1944, was a Russian painter who is credited with being among the pioneers of abstract art.