Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Louis Chilton

Vincent Van Gogh painting that was ‘unseen’ for over 100 years sold for £11.2m at auction

Photograph: REUTERS

A painting by Vincent Van Gogh that was kept behind closed doors for more than a century has been sold at auction for £11.2m (€13.09m).

The piece, which is called A Street Scene in Montmartre, had been estimated to sell for up to £6.9m.

Van Gogh’s artwork had been owned by a French family for the majority of its existence, with art specialists and historians only having previously catalogued the work as a black-and-white photograph.

It was originally painted by the iconic Dutch artist in 1887.

Auction house Sotheby’s said that the price was a record amount for a work by the artist in France, where the sale took place.

Read more:

Van Gogh painted the piece during a stay with his brother Theo in Paris from 1886 to 1887.

It depicts a windmill in Montmartre, an area on the outskirts of the northen part of the city, which was just a village at the time.

The auction was live-streamed on Thursday (25 March) from the French capital.

Van Gogh’s work initially sold for an even higher amount, but problems with online bidding meant that the piece had to be offered up again at the end of the event.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.