Fausto Zonaro's painting "La Coda del Diavolo" was considered lost for a long time. Now, it will be put up for auction at Dorotheum in Vienna on 24 October 2023 along with over 200 other 19th century paintings. 

The painting shows village girls from Veneto in a meadow playing the popular game "La Coda del Diavolo (The Devil's Tail), where a girl takes the role of the devil and tries to catch the last link in the human chain. Zonaro has transferred the scene onto canvas with great vivacity and movement. The work was previously known only from a photograph but has now been rediscovered in a German private collection. Its counterpart, "Dopo il Gioco” (After the Game), was auctioned at Dorotheum in April 2010; this work, too, had not been on public view since its last exhibition in 1908 at the Zonaro family home in Istanbul. After training in Paris and Venice, Fausto Zonaro was court painter to Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1842 - 1918) from 1892 to 1911.

Zonaro developed an intimate friendship with the Sultan‘s eldest son Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin (1885 - 1949), who became an enthusiastic collector of Zonaro's works and acquired "La Coda del Diavolo" from the artist. The Sultan's entire family had to leave Istanbul when revolution broke out. It is very likely that Prince Burhaneddin took the painting with him to Europe, after which all traces of it were lost. This makes the present rediscovery of this work from the artist's early creative phase all the more remarkable (estimate € 100,000 – 160,000).

Numerous other important paintings will also be offered for sale, such as "The Carpet Dealer" by Alphons Leopold Mielich, one of the most famous Austrian Orientalists (€ 70,000 – 90,000).

Tina Blau is considered one of the most important representatives of Austrian impressionism. One of her motifs of the Vienna Prater will be auctioned, an oil painting that was acquired by Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1901 after an exhibition in the Vienna Künstlerhaus (€ 80,000 – 120,000). Paintings by Olga-Wisinger Florian and Leontine von Littrow, both of whom are also among the most significant painters of their time, will also be auctioned. 

The auction showcases many Austrian landscapes and city views, such as works by Rudolf von Alt, Franz Steinfeld, Emil Jakob Schindler, and Friedrich Loos, whose painting shows a rare view of Lake Neusiedl. 

The four-part panoramic view of the Julian Alps by landscape painter Markus Pernhart (€ 160,000 – 220,000) is almost six metres wide. 

The international selection includes Italian, Croatian, Czech, Danish (Michael Peter Ancher), and Dutch art (Josef Israels), as well as works by Spanish painters (Jose Mongrell y Torrent “Mending the Nets”, € 40,000 – 60,000). Luigi Querena’s Venetian views are outstanding (€ 70,000 – 90,000, € 60,000 – 80,000), as are those by Giuseppe Bernardino Bison (€ 90,000 – 110,000), and Carlo Grubas (Feast on the Grand Canal with Ca d'Oro by Moonlight, € 110,000 – 140,000).