Hidden Van Gogh leads US$450 million New York auction
A Vincent van Gogh unseen in public for more than 60 years goes on sale in New York on 18 November with an expected hammer price of around US$180 million, or about US$207 million with buyer's premium.
That figure was reported by The Art Newspaper. Hammer price is the winning bid called by the auctioneer, before fees. Buyer's premium is the percentage added on top and paid by the buyer.
The picture is Blossoming Chestnut Trees, painted in May 1890 in the final months of Van Gogh's life. Sotheby's in New York lists it under its French title, Châtaigniers en fleurs, as oil on canvas measuring 28 by 23 1/4 in. (70 by 58 cm), according to the house's online lot page.
It has been out of sight for decades. The work was last exhibited in 1964 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and is one of only eight of Van Gogh's 50 Auvers landscape paintings that remain in private hands.
The seller is the Argentinian Blaquier-Arrieta family. The collection was assembled by Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier, who died in 2020, and Carlos Pedro Blaquier, who died in 2023, and then passed to their children. The 12-picture group is expected to raise around US$450 million in total.
Sotheby's has organised the sale as Legendary: The Blaquier-Arrieta Collection, an evening auction scheduled for 6:00 PM EST. The house describes the holding as among the finest collections still in private hands. Sotheby's has also guaranteed the Van Gogh for an undisclosed sum. A guarantee is a promised minimum price to the seller, whether or not the room bids higher.
The other 11 lots are Impressionist and post-Impressionist works, the French 19th-century pictures made in and after the loose brushwork movement of the 1870s. They include paintings by Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin. The Van Gogh, Cezanne and Monet pictures have been described as long-unseen before this sale.
The painting will go on public display before the November sale, according to The Guardian. A viewing programme lets anyone stand in front of the work without buying a ticket to bid.
What makes this stand out for the market is the comparison. The current auction record for a Van Gogh is US$117 million including fees, paid for Orchard with Cypresses at Christie's in New York in 2022. A result near US$207 million with fees would clear it by a distance.
