Sotheby's Wins $450 Million Blaquier Art Collection in Fierce Auction-House Battle
Sotheby's has secured a tranche of art worth roughly US$450 million from the Blaquier family of Argentina — a consignment of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works that ranks among the most valuable ever entrusted to a single auction house. The sellers are the children of Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier and Carlos Pedro Blaquier, whose collection the New York Times described in 1995 as Argentina's largest private art collection. Artnet News
Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier died in 2020; her husband Carlos Pedro Blaquier died in 2023. She was reportedly the sole heir to Ledesma, Argentina's enormous sugar producer, and he served as the company's president from 1970 to 2013. The two married in 1951, and over decades assembled holdings that include some of the most recognisable names in Western art.
The headline works are considerable. A Van Gogh titled Châtaignier en fleurs roses et blanches (Chestnut Tree in Pink and White Blossom), painted in 1890, could fetch US$150 million to US$200 million, according to an art advisor cited by Artnet News. A Paul Cézanne harlequin from a series created between 1888 and 1890 — one of which is held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. — could bring more than US$120 million. Edgar Degas's horse-race scene Avant la Course (1893), a Paris street scene by Camille Pissarro, and Renoir's En canot (1877) are each expected to sell for more than US$25 million.
Sotheby's offered a substantial guarantee — an upfront commitment to pay the seller a minimum sum regardless of bidding outcomes — to win the consignment. The house had lost the previous season's headline collection, that of publishing magnate S.I. Newhouse, to a rival. The Blaquier win is a direct answer to that setback.
The spoils were divided. Christie's previously handled several Blaquier works, including Van Gogh's portrait Zouave (1888), which fetched roughly US$190 million in a private auction — a sale in which bidding is conducted privately rather than in a public saleroom. Two lower-value paintings by Paul Signac from the family sold at Christie's in November. Christie's has also won the Blaquier family's renowned silver collection, estimated at US$15 million to US$20 million, slated for auction in London in December.
The collection's path to market has not been without controversy. In 2012, Carlos Pedro Blaquier was charged with playing a role in kidnappings carried out in 1976 during Argentina's military dictatorship. He denied wrongdoing and died without standing trial. In 2023, the Argentine Customs Authority fined the Blaquier family for improperly exporting around a dozen works to Luxembourg, including paintings by Van Gogh, Degas, Renoir, Monet, Gauguin, and Cézanne.
For Sotheby's, the consignment arrives on the heels of a strong 2026 modern evening sale that achieved US$304 million, with top results for Matisse, Picasso, and Van Gogh. That sale saw Van Gogh's La Moisson en Provence sell for US$29.4 million, squarely within its US$25–35 million pre-sale estimate. Observer
The Blaquier works now move toward sale dates yet to be announced, carrying with them a family history as layered as the provenance — the documented chain of ownership — that accompanies each canvas.
