The 1916 "Suprematist Composition," which had featured in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, was recently restituted to the artist's family.
"Suprematist Composition is a magnificent modern work of art of enormous art historical importance and cultural resonance," said Emmanuel Di-Donna, the auction house's vice chairman and head of evening sales, New York.
"It ranks amongst the finest paintings of the 20th Century, on a par with the best paintings of modern masters such as Picasso, Rothko, Pollock and de Kooning that have ever come up for sale either at auction or privately," Di-Donna said as quoted in a news release.
The painting will be on display at Sotheby's office in London on October 3-20, and in New York from October 29 to November 3, Sotheby's said.
The painting made its debut at a 1919-20 exhibition in Moscow. In 1927, Malevich accompanied the picture to exhibitions in Warsaw and Berlin, introducing Europe to the aesthetic he had devised. In June the same year, he left Germany for the Soviet Union, leaving his paintings behind.
Malevich was prevented from leaving the Soviet Union again and could not return to Berlin. The "Suprematist Composition" eventually ended up in the Stedelijk. The painting was returned to Malevich's heirs after years of legal wrangling.
Malevich, who was born in Ukraine to Polish parents and studied art in Kiev and Moscow, experimented with various modernist styles, including Cubism and Futurism. He is best known for his works "Black Square" (1915) and "Black Cross" (1916-1917), renowned for their previously unseen geometrical simplicity.
Malevich eventually abandoned all reference to figuration in favor of colored geometric shapes and described that style of art in a treatise known as the "Suprematist Manifesto." He died in 1935.
"The Malevich family is delighted that this masterpiece by our renowned ancestor is being brought to market by Sotheby's. The sale confirms Kazimir Malevich's place in the pantheon of the 20th century master," the heirs said in a statement through a spokesperson.
