Sotheby's to Auction $180m Van Gogh 'Blossoming Chestnut Trees' in New York
On 18 November, Sotheby's is set to auction Vincent van Gogh's Blossoming Chestnut Trees (May 1890) in New York, with an anticipated hammer price of $180 million, totaling $207 million when including the buyer's premium. This artwork, guaranteed by Sotheby's, could establish a new auction high for Van Gogh, whose previous record stands at $117 million for Orchard with Cypresses (April 1888), sold in 2022. Blossoming Chestnut Trees, one of the last eight private landscape paintings from Auvers, is being sold by the Blaquier-Arrieta family as part of a $450 million collection. Painted in Auvers-sur-Oise, it was referenced in a letter to Theo dated 25 May 1890 and has changed ownership several times since Van Gogh's passing on 29 July 1890.
Key facts
- Sotheby's will auction Vincent van Gogh's Blossoming Chestnut Trees (May 1890) in New York on 18 November.
- The estimated hammer price is around $180m, with a total of $207m including buyer's premium.
- The current auction record for a Van Gogh is $117m for Orchard with Cypresses (April 1888) at Christie's New York in 2022.
- The painting is one of only eight of Van Gogh's 50 Auvers landscapes still in private hands.
- It is part of a group of 12 pictures from the Blaquier-Arrieta family collection expected to raise around $450m.
- The collection was assembled by Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier (died 2020) and Carlos Pedro Blaquier (died 2023).
- The painting was last exhibited in 1964 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
- It will be shown in Taipei (5-6 October), Hong Kong (13-15 October), and New York (7-17 November) before the auction.
Entities
Artists
- Vincent van Gogh
- Paul Cezanne
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Camille Pissarro
- Edgar Degas
- Claude Monet
- Paul Gauguin
- Theo van Gogh
- Jo Bonger
- Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier
- Carlos Pedro Blaquier
- Prince de Wagram
- Samuel Fischer
- Brigitte Fischer
- Henriette Kapferer
- Marcel Kapferer
- George 'Buddy' Gard de Sylva
- Harriet Harris-Jonas
- Paul Cézanne
- Johanna van Gogh-Bonger
- Vincent Willem van Gogh
- George "Buddy" DeSylva
- Scott Niichel
- Alfred Sisley
- André Derain
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
- Maurice de Vlaminck
- Philip Hook
- Simon Shaw
- George Gard 'Buddy' DeSylva
Institutions
- Sotheby's
- Christie's
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- Emil Bührle Collection
- Kunsthaus Zurich
- Royal Dutch Shell
- BBC
- Sotheby's New York
- Sotheby's London
- Reuters
- S. Fischer Verlag
- Capitol Records
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Wildenstein
- Musée d'Orsay
- BBC One
- Antiques Roadshow
Locations
- New York
- United States
- Auvers-sur-Oise
- France
- Paris
- Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
- Taipei
- Taiwan
- Hong Kong
- China
- Buenos Aires
- Argentina
- Luxembourg
- Qatar
- Berlin
- Germany
- London
- United Kingdom
- Fifth Avenue
- Netherlands
- Saint-Rémy
- Europe
- Asia
- Middle East