Photo: The Canadian Press
FILE – In this archive photo from February 25, 2021, Sotheby’s staff are exhibiting “Street scene in Montmartre”, a painting by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh at the Sotheby’s auction house in Paris. A rare painting by Vincent Van Gogh is auctioned by Sotheby’s Paris on Thursday and is expected to sell for several million. (AP Photo / Christophe Ena, file)
A rare painting by Vincent Van Gogh was auctioned Thursday by Sotheby’s Paris for 13.1 million euros ($ 15.4 million).
The sale of “Scene de rue à Montmartre” was eagerly awaited as it was one of the few paintings by the Dutch impressionist master to have yet been in private hands. The auction house had predicted that it would sell for between 5 and 8 million euros.
Sotheby’s said the work has remained in the same family collection for more than 100 years, out of public view.
It represents 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 the wooden palisades that surrounded the place.
It was painted in 1887, a year after Van Gogh moved to Paris and lived in Montmartre while staying with his brother Theo. He left the French capital in 1888 for the south of France, where he lived until his death in 1890.
It was among more than 30 works sold Thursday by Sotheby’s by masters such as Modigliani, Rodin, Camille Claudel, Degas, Klee and Magritte.
