Van Gogh’s autumnal trees fetches a record R797 million
– A Vincent Van Gogh painting fetched more than $66 million (R797 million) at a New York auction on Tuesday, the most paid for a work by the Dutch postImpressionist artist since 1998.
According to the Sotheby’s auction firm, Van Gogh’s Les Alyscamps, which depicts a stand of autumnal trees, had been expected to go for around $40 million, but ultimately an Asian collector paid $66.3 million after an intense bidding war between five potential buyers.
Also reaching the pricing stratosphere was a Water Lilies painting by French Impressionist Claude Monet, which sold for $54 million, smashing Sotheby’s valuation of between $30 million and $45 million.
The most ever paid for a Van Gogh was in 1990, when his Portrait of Dr Gachet sold for $82.5 million in New York. Adjusted to today’s dollars, that’s about $153 million.
Of the six Monet works offered at auction, Le Palais Ducal, painted in Venice in 1908, went under the hammer for $23.1 million, more than its estimated $15 million to $20 million.
New York
Three Studies of Lucian Freud,
And his Bassin Aux Nympheas, Les Rosiers sold for $20.4 million. The two other Monet paintings found no buyer.
Tuesday’s sale of Impressionist and contemporary works marks the start of the auction season in the Big Apple.
Pablo Picasso’s colourful The Women of Algiers ( Version 0), depicting a scene from a harem, will be up for grabs when Christie’s puts it on the auction block on Monday.
The artwork has been valued $140 million.
Also expected to break a record was Alberto Giacometti’s Man Pointing sculpture, expected to sell for $130 million.
The world record for a painting sold at auction is $142.4 million for Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which was snapped up in New York in 2013.
Giacometti holds the record for Walking Man I – the sculpure was sold for $104.3 million in 2010.
The world record for a painting sold at auction is $142.4 million for Francis Bacon’s
which was snapped up in New York in 2013
at