After almost a century long “emigration”, a gouache painting called “Landscape with Red Houses” is finally heading back home. The heirs of Kazimir Malevich have finally settled a dispute with a Swiss museum in Basel to return the piece to Russia.

­It was almost a detective story. Kazimir Malevich, the star of Russian avant-garde art at the beginning of 20th century, painted the landscape in 1910. Little did he know the painting, along with roughly another hundred works would travel the world in the most unusual circumstances.

In 1927 the artist went on a foreign trip and stopped in Berlin. He had a large hall for his exhibits at the annual Great Berlin Art Exhibition – at the time, he believed himself to be at the height of his career. But he was suddenly summoned back to the Soviet Union. He urgently left, leaving all his paintings in the care of his friends in Berlin. He planned to come back and hold an extensive tour that would include going to Paris. However once he returned to the Soviet Union he was arrested and never left again.

The heritage he had left in Berlin became the subject of dispute with several museums across the world. The heirs claimed Malevich’s friends in Berlin had no right to sell the art and are now trying to recover his legacy. They’ve already reached settlements with the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University.

In 2010 they also registered a claim with the Kunstmuseum in Basel for two gouaches and around 60 drawings the museum has in its possession. The museum has always maintained it had acquired the works “honourably” and within the law. Now the Kunstmuzeum has agreed to transfer the Landscape with Red Houses, bought from Marlborough Fine Art in London in 1964, to the heirs. However a second gouache called The Washing Woman, which was donated in 1995 by the former director of the Museum Franz Meyer who bought it at auction in 1964, will stay in Switzerland – together with another 60 drawings.  

A statement issued by both parties after the settlement says, the rest of Malevich’s works will be kept on public display, acknowledges the historical circumstances that prevented his return to Germany, and respects the heirs’ legacy, and allows the museum to comply with the code of ethics of the International Council of Museums.

So it might take some time before the rest of Malevich’s works left in Berlin find their way back home.