Van Gogh\u2019s long-unseen painting draws Hong Kong crowds ahead of a record-breaking $180 million Sotheby\u2019s auction<\/p>\n
Staff members pose with Vincent van Gogh’s “Chataigniers en fleurs” (Chestnut Trees in Blossom) at a media preview ahead of its auction in New York, at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, China. PHOTO: Reuters <\/p>\n
Hundreds of people queued in Hong Kong on Tuesday to view a Vincent van Gogh painting never publicly exhibited in more than six decades, ahead of a Sotheby’s \u200bauction in New York where it is expected to fetch about $180 million.<\/p>\n
The November 18 \u200cauction will test the strength of the high-end art market, in which collectors have continued to compete for scarce trophy works, undeterred by broader economic uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Painted in May 1890, “Ch\u00e2taigniers en fleurs”, or “Chestnut Trees in Blossom”, is one \u200bof the most important works from the Dutch artist’s final days in the French \u200bvillage of Auvers-sur-Oise, where he died about two months later, aged 37.<\/p>\n
The painting \u2060is poised to set a new auction record for a Van Gogh work, said Scott Niichel, \u200bof Sotheby’s modern and contemporary art department in New York.<\/p>\n
“This is a moment of extraordinary optimism, \u200bfrenetic energy, enthusiasm, passion, and colour in the artist’s body of work,” he said.<\/p>\n
Paintings from Van Gogh’s final Auvers-sur-Oise period, just after his release from a psychiatric asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, rarely come to market and the auction will \u200bdraw the attention of collectors, museums and investors.<\/p>\n
“I’d never heard of this painting before, so I \u200bwanted to see it with my own eyes,” said Li Shanshan, a 50-year-old art lover who travelled about \u200c2-1\/2 hours \u2060from the southern city of Shenzhen to view the artwork.<\/p>\n
The painting, which depicts a massive blossoming chestnut tree with a flowering canopy that dominates the composition, will be sold among part of a collection of 12 long-unseen works, including items by Paul Cezanne and Claude Monet.<\/p>\n
Five unveiled at Sotheby’s \u200bin London in late \u200bSeptember included Cezanne’s “Arlequin” and \u2060Monet\u2019s “Le Jardin des Tuileries”.<\/p>\n
After Van Gogh’s death in July 1890, “Ch\u00e2taigniers en fleurs” was passed to his brother Theo, and then to the latter’s widow \u200bJohanna van Gogh-Bonger and their son Vincent Willem.<\/p>\n
Subsequently it was owned by \u200bGerman publisher \u2060Samuel Fischer, founder of S. Fischer Verlag, before entering the collection of George “Buddy” DeSylva, the American songwriter, film producer and co-founder of Capitol Records.<\/p>\n
In 1953, the painting was acquired by collector Harriet Harris-Jonas, whose holdings \u2060were \u200bconsidered significant enough that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art \u200borganised visits for patrons to view works in her Fifth Avenue apartment.<\/p>\n
The painting was acquired by the Blaquier family from \u200bart dealer Wildenstein in 1975.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Van Gogh\u2019s long-unseen painting draws Hong Kong crowds ahead of a record-breaking $180 million Sotheby\u2019s auction Staff members pose with Vincent van Gogh’s “Chataigniers en fleurs” (Chestnut Trees in Blossom) at a media preview ahead of its auction in New York, at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, China. PHOTO: Reuters Hundreds of people queued in Hong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/hong-kong-painting1791904864-0\/hong-kong-painting1791904864-0-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t