 |
| Van Gogh's work is
highly prized among collectors |
| 1987: Van Gogh fetches record
price |
England have
A painting by Vincent Van Gogh has been sold for $49m - a world record
for a work of art.
The final price was more than twice what the painting, called Irises,
had been expected to reach.
The anonymous purchaser must also pay a 10% commission fee to the
auction house, Sotheby's, bringing the total to $53.9m.
The sale was also accomplished in what may have been a record time
given the figures involved - the bidding rose from the starting point of
$15m to reach the final sale price in less than two minutes.
Irises depicts the garden of the Saint-Remy mental asylum in France
where Van Gogh was a patient.
It was painted in 1889, a few months before the artist committed
suicide aged 37.
The previous record for a painting was set in March by another Van Gogh
masterpiece, Sunflowers.
It was bought in London for just under $40m by a Japanese insurance
company.
Traditionally art prices have reflected the state of the economy so in
the wake of a stock market crash Irises had not been expected to fetch
such a huge sum.
Sotheby's North America chairman John Marion said the sale proved the
art world was "alive and well".
"This painting was beyond the stock market. It transcended the stock
market. There just is no other opportunity to buy a painting like this,"
Mr Marion said.
Irises had been owned by John Whitney Payson, the heir to one of
America's biggest fortunes.
His mother, Joan, bought it for $80,000 in 1947, and hung it over the
fireplace in her living room.
After her death in 1975, the painting was displayed in a gallery Mr
Payson built in his mother's memory.
He said he decided to sell it after the record-breaking Sunflowers
auction because he felt he could not guarantee the safety of a painting
potentially worth $40m or more.
