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A rare art collection is due to go on sale in New York in November, with works by famous impressionists estimated to make $450 million.
Sotheby’s is auctioning the Blaquier-Arrieta private collection that includes works by Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, and Pissarro.
Paul Cezanne’s “Arlequin” is one of the star lots in Sotheby’s upcoming sale of impressionist and post-impressionist painters.
It has not been seen in public since 1975 and is attracting a lot of attention in the art world.
“Arlequin” is one of the most hotly contested lots at Sotheby’s New York sale on 18 November, and is estimated to make in the region of $120 million.
It is one of only two harlequin paintings made by Cezanne—the other was a smaller work that fetched $8.2 million at auction back in 1988.
Helena Newman is the chairman of Sotheby’s Europe. She says the collection is special: “It’s incredibly rare for a collection of this quality, museum caliber and content to come to the market. They’re just 12 works, but each and every one of them is of the caliber that it could sit in the Musée d’Orsay. It’s really rare and also very unknown previously. This is like a discovery for large parts of the world. Most people would have never stood in front of these paintings. They haven’t been seen in public for some 50 years or so.”
The 12 works are expected to make around $450 million at the sale, which includes Impressionist and Modern works.
The Blaquier-Arrieta collection is one of the world’s most prestigious private art collections, assembled by late Argentine industrialist Carlos Pedro Blaquier and patron Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier in the 1970s.
It was known about in art circles, but even those in the art world have been taken aback by its richness.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.