By Francesca Halliwell
LONDON, Sept 30 (Reuters) – A collection of 12 long-unseen paintings, including works by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Claude Monet, is expected to fetch around $450 million when it goes on sale in New York in November.
Five of the paintings were unveiled at Sotheby’s in London on Wednesday, including Cezanne’s “Arlequin” and Monet’s “Le Jardin des Tuileries”.
The rest of the collection is currently being showcased digitally, including Van Gogh’s “Chataigniers en fleurs”, which is estimated to be worth about $180 million. Some of the paintings will travel to galleries worldwide ahead of the New York sale on November 18.
It is “amongst the most valuable collections ever offered at auction,” said Helena Newman, Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, adding that the pieces by Cezanne and Van Gogh are expected to achieve record prices.
She said in an interview that Van Gogh’s masterpiece is “an incredibly exciting revelation and discovery,” painted at the end of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise, just after he was released from the psychiatric asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence.
“It is exploding with positivity and joy and exuberance. Of course, we know from the history of what is to come, that it is just three months before his untimely death,” added Newman, who is also Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art Worldwide.
RECORD PRICES EXPECTED
Cezanne’s “Arlequin” is one of a rare series of Harlequin paintings created between 1888 and 1890. Unseen in public since 1975, the work is estimated to sell for around $120 million.
“The other three (‘Arlequin’ versions) are all in museums now, so this is the only example left in private hands,” Newman said. The piece “set the scene of artists like Picasso who will continue with the Harlequin subject well into the 20th century,” she added.
The auction house expects “Arlequin” to set a new auction record for the artist in November. Cezanne’s current record is held by “Les Joueurs de cartes”, now in Qatar’s national collection, which was reportedly acquired in 2011 for $250 million, then the highest known price paid for a work of art.
Most of the collection’s paintings were acquired in London in the 1970s by Carlos Pedro Blaquier and Nelly Blaquier de Arrieta. According to Newman, the collection is not widely known by the public.
“Many of these works have not been seen on exhibition for 50 years or so or more, so its appearance now is a real revelation,” she said, adding she expects the collection sale to be historic.
“It will be looked forward to and then looked back to in years to come as one of the legendary collections,” Newman said. “One of really the last moments to buy great museum-quality examples by these key artists of Impressionist and Modern art.”
($1 = £0.75)
(Reporting by Francesca Halliwell; Editing by Jonathan Spicer )
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