Painting by Piet Mondrian hanging upside down for 77 years

According to a curator at the German museum, an abstract painting by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian has been hanging upside down for 77 years.

At the Kunstsammlung museum in Düsseldorf, a sizable retrospective of the avant-garde artist's work debuted on Saturday. Among the works on display is "New York City 1," a 1941 painting.

Susanne Meyer-Buser, the exhibition's curator, learned as she was getting ready for the presentation that the picture had been displayed to the public somewhat differently than it had perhaps been meant.

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"In a photo from 1944, I saw that the canvas was the other way around on an easel. It intrigued me," Meyer-Buser told the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung.

The painting, which was made up of multiple lines in blue, red, and yellow that intersected at right angles, was later shown incorrectly at MoMA in New York, according to the curator.

In 1980, it was moved to a museum in Düsseldorf where a similar display was constructed.

According to Meyer-Buser, the mistake might have been made because "the painting doesn't have a signature."

When Mondrian passed away in 1944, "the artist's name inscribed on the back of the frame by the administrator of the (artist's estate)" certainly played a role in the choice to display the piece in the way it has been for decades.

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Mondrian, who was born in 1872, was a well-known representative of the abstract painting movement "De Stijl" in the 1920s and one of the most significant figures in 20th-century contemporary art.

He relocated to New York in 1940, where the city's skyscrapers and layout served as an inspiration for his horizontal lines. 1944 saw his death in New York.

"Victory Boogie Woogie," his most well-known piece of art, is regarded as one of the most significant pieces of 20th-century art.

(with inputs from agencies)