A rare oil painting by Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century will go on sale, the leading lot in the Impressionist and Modern art sale at Artcurial on June 6 and 7 in Paris. 

The painting was classed as a national treasure by the French state earlier this year and has a faultless lineage, left to the NGO, Médecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders) by the renowned art publisher and close friend of Duchamp’s, Arnold Fawcus. It is now being sold by the NGO to finance the organisation's essential international aid work. 

The female nude painting ‘Nu sur nu’ (Nude on Nude) is dated from 1910 -11 at the turning point of Duchamp’s career, pre-dating Duchamp’s seminal masterpiece, ‘Nu descendant l’escalier’  (Nude Descending a Staircase) produced in 1912. 

The painting has been part of the most important Duchamp retrospectives in recent years, shown at the 2014 exhibition at Centre Pompidou in Paris. It was also shown at London’s Tate Gallery (1966) and an exhibition at MoMa in New York and Art Institute in Chicago in 1973-74.

Further key works include a Surrealist bronze by René Magritte. Known predominantly as an important Surrealist painter throughout this life, he turned to sculpture at the suggestion of his Parisian dealer, Alexandre Iolas. The artist died before the series of 8 bronzes were completed.

View the Catalogue.