Brief
Van Gogh and Cézanne masterpieces to fetch $450 million at Sotheby’s auction
The Blaquier‑Arrieta collection, unseen for decades, includes a Van Gogh landscape and a Cézanne portrait with combined estimates of $300 million.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Sotheby’s announced that a dozen Impressionist and post‑Impressionist works from the late Argentine collector Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier’s private collection will be offered at a Nov 18 auction in New York, with a total valuation of almost $450 million.
What happened
The collection, assembled by Arrieta de Blaquier and her husband Carlos Pedro Blaquier, has remained hidden for about fifty years in South America. Sotheby’s said the sale will feature Vincent van Gogh’s landscape “Châtaigniers en fleurs” (estimated at $180 million) and Paul Cézanne’s portrait “Arlequin” (estimated at $120 million), alongside works by Monet, Pissarro, Degas and Renoir, each valued in the tens of millions.
What the reports add
Helena Newman, Sotheby’s head of Impressionist and modern art, described the collection as a “mini‑Musée D’Orsay” and noted that in her three‑decade career she had never handled a group of this caliber. Former Sotheby’s auctioneer Philip Hook called the cache “the stuff of legend” because the owners never loaned the pieces for exhibitions.
What was said
Newman told Fortune that the van Gogh painting captures the “explosion of energy and vitality” the artist felt after leaving a psychiatric asylum in May 1890, two months before his death. She added that the sale is likely to draw buyers ranging from American tech billionaires to well‑endowed Middle‑Eastern institutions, noting a shift toward “established, tried and tested” works amid global uncertainty.
How it came about
The artworks are being sold by the Blaquier‑Arrieta children after their parents’ deaths. Sotheby’s will display the pieces at its London venue before the works travel to Taipei, Hong Kong, Paris and finally New York for the auction, as previously reported in Felo’s coverage of the Van Gogh painting unveiling.
Key facts
- Sotheby’s will auction 12 Impressionist and post‑Impressionist works valued at nearly $450 million. (fortune.com)
- Van Gogh’s “Châtaigniers en fleurs” is estimated at $180 million. (fortune.com)
- Cézanne’s portrait “Arlequin” is estimated at $120 million. (fortune.com)
- The collection was assembled by Argentine collectors Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier and Carlos Pedro Blaquier. (fortune.com)
- Helena Newman described the collection as a “mini‑Musée D’Orsay”. (fortune.com)
Sources
- [1] fortune.com — originally reported as “'The stuff of legend': Unseen works of van Gogh and Cézanne from a private collection are going up for auction at $450 million”
