One of the few paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, “Street Scene in Montmartre”, was sold for over 13 million euros at an auction after going on public display for the first time this week. The painting which emerged after a century spent in the same collection has not been exhibited in public since it was painted in 1887. It fetched 13.091 million euros ($15.414 million) at Sotheby’s.
It depicts a windmill named the Pepper Mill, seen from the street under a bright sky, with a man, a woman and a little girl walking in front of wooden palisades that surrounded the place. It was painted in 1887, one year after Van Gogh moved to Paris and lived in Montmartre while he was lodging with his brother Theo. He left the French capital in 1888 for southern France, where he lived until his death in 1890.
The result surpasses last year’s equivalent sale in Paris that was pushed to June because of the pandemic and brought in a much lower total of €10 million ($11.8 million). This sale also brought in more than the house’s October Paris-based “Modernités” evening auction, which generated €28 million ($33 million).
Other top lots which was sold at Sotheby’s auction was Francis Picabia’s La corrida (Le Matador dans l’arène), ca. 1940–4, which was sold for €3.5 million ($3.7 million) with buyer’s premium. against an estimation of €2.5 million ($2.9 million). Camille Pissaro’s 1887 gouache Pea Harvest hammered at €2.8 million (€3.4 million with buyer’s premium, or $4 million)
An Edgar Degas pastel featuring a ballerina sold for €2.6 million ($3.2 million), against a low estimate of €2 million ($2.3 million). uguste Rodin’s bronze sculpture of a seated embracing couple, Le Baiser, cast in 1904, hammered at €780,000, above the high estimate of €600,000 ($400,000). Its final price was €956,3000 ($1.1 million).
