Long-Unseen Mondrian Could Reach $40.8 Million

Piet Mondrian’s ‘Composition III’, long held in a private collection, is coming to auction with an estimate reaching $40.8 million. The work represents a decisive moment when the artist transformed relations among red, yellow, blue, black and white into a rigorous system of balance. The sale will test how scarcity, historical importance and distinguished provenance increase the value of modernist paintings that can appear deceptively simple.