Surreal Chess

I was nearly certain that here on Top eBay Chess Items by Price I had already featured the painting shown below, but it seems I was mistaken. The auction was titled 'Vladimir Kush Artist Proof on canvas framed "Chess"', and the item sold for a bit less than $1800, 'Best offer accepted'.

The description added only,

The artist proof on canvas titled "Chess" by the artist Vladimir Kush. Framed by the gallery measures 21" x 23.5"; AP 5 of 30. Comes with the certificate of authenticity from the gallery.

'AP' means 'Artist Proof', which is undoubtedly the reason for the four figure price. If you do an image search on 'chess kush', you'll find dozens of examples of the same painting, most of them priced at three figures. If you do a search on 'Vladimir Kush', you'll find the artist's Wikipedia entry, Vladimir Kush. It starts,

Vladimir Kush (born 1965) is a Russian born surrealist painter and sculptor. He studied at the Surikov Moscow Art Institute, and after several years working as an artist in Moscow, his native city, he emigrated to the United States, eventually establishing his own gallery on the island of Maui in Hawaii.

That makes yet another reason to visit Maui.