Van Gogh's 'Street Scene in Montmartre' goes under hammer twice, fetches $15.4 million

A never seen before painting of a Paris street by Vincent Van Gogh that went on display after spending over 100 years behind closed doors has fetched more than €13 million at auction on March 25. Auction company Sotheby’s said on Thursday that Van Gogh’s Street Scene in Montmartre was sold 13,091,250 EUR. The painting was not exhibited until recently after it was painted in 1887 and fetched US$15.414 million reaching well above the estimate of 5-8 million euros. Sotheby’s said that the sale price was a record for the artist in France. 

The sale of Van Gogh’s ‘Street Scene In Montmartre’ was the main highlight of an auction of 33 works from artists including Degas, Magritte, Modigliani, Klee, Rodin and his muse Camille Claudel. The auction in Paris was live-streamed. Due to issues with online bidding, the painting was re-offered towards the end of the sale in Paris after the auction house scrapped its initial sale in the afternoon where Gogh’s art fetched a slightly higher sale price.

(Image credits: Sotheby's)

About ‘Street Scene In Montmartre’, Van Gogh expert Martin Baily had told BBC News the 1887 painting was “hidden away ever since it came off the artist’s easel.” The artwork that fetched more than 13 million euros on Thursday is one of a series of works the Ban Gogh created while lodging with his brother Theo in 1886 and 1887 a short distance from the street that has been depicted in the painting. Before the public display of the painting, Sotheby’s had said, “The appearance on the market of a work of this calibre, and from such an iconic series, is undoubtedly a major event.”

Van Gogh ‘La Mousmé’ fetched over US$25 million

Last month, Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh’s iconic painting of a young Provençale girl dubbed as ‘La Mousmé’ on February 1 went on auction and fetched over US$25 million. The artwork was put up for auction at Christie’s New York. The 1888 Japanese-inspired drawing of a girl from Provence can turn to one of the most expensive of his drawings ever sold at auction. 

In a post on the website, the auction centre started bidding for A Family Collection: Works on Paper, Van Gogh to Freud, provided by an unidentified owner, who, according to the British press, belonged to a family of a prominent London dealer named Thomas Gibson. 

(Image credits: Christie's)