Text size An early abstract masterpiece by Wassily Kandinsky that was recently restituted to the descendants of its original owners, Johanna Margarete Stern and Siegbert Samuel Stern, will be offered at Sotheby’s in London next month, with an estimate in the region of US$45 million. The large-scale work, Murnau mit Kirche II (View of Murnau with church), was painted in 1910, a crucial moment in the Russian-born artist’s transformation to abstract painting. Kandinsky is now considered a pioneer of abstract art, and most of his paintings are held in museum collections. “Kandinsky’s Murnau period came to define abstract art for...