Van Gogh painting of Paris sells for à14m

A Vincent Van Gogh painting of a Paris street scene, held in a private collection for more than a century, sold for à14m (R247m) on Thursday.

Auction house Sotheby’s had set an estimated value of à5mà8m for A Street Scene in Montmartre, painted in 1887 while the artist was lodging with his brother Theo in Paris.

The Sotheby’s team held the auction in Paris with bidding online or by phone from Paris, New York and Hong Kong.

The à14m bid was placed online just as the hammer was coming down to clear a bid at à13.05m.

The painting, of a man and woman strolling arm in arm past a ramshackle fence with a windmill in the background, came from the private collection of a French family. It is part of a series Van Gogh produced of scenes in Montmartre, a hilly district of Paris now dominated by the Sacre Coeur church.