Twelve Impressionist and post-Impressionist artworks, valued at nearly half a billion dollars, are set to hit the auction block after remaining out of the public eye for decades. The collection was established by the late Argentine art collector Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier and her husband, sugar magnate Carlos Pedro Blaquier, and is now being offered for sale by their children.
Among the highlights are Vincent van Gogh’s "Châtaigniers en fleurs" (Chestnut Trees in Flower), which carries an estimated value of $180 million, and Paul Cézanne’s portrait "Arlequin," valued at approximately $120 million. Neither of these significant pieces has been displayed in public for 50 years. According to Helena Newman, Sotheby’s head of Impressionist and modern art, the collection is comparable to a "mini-Musée D'Orsay." She noted that in her three decades at the auction house, she has never encountered a collection of such caliber and content.
The van Gogh painting is particularly notable for capturing the "explosion of energy and vitality" the artist experienced following his release from a psychiatric asylum in May 1890, just two months before his death. The Cézanne portrait is equally rare, representing one of four known paintings of the artist’s son dressed as a Harlequin; the other three are currently held in major museums. The collection also features works by Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, all of which are valued in the tens of millions of dollars.
Art expert and former Sotheby’s auctioneer Philip Hook described the collection as the "stuff of legend" because the works were never loaned for public exhibitions. Hook noted that the collectors successfully focused on acquiring one representative work from each of the major names in the movement, a feat he called "incredibly difficult to do." As global geopolitical uncertainty persists, Newman suggested that there is a renewed interest in these "unquestionably great," established works, adding that such a "museum-quality Impressionist collection" is exceptionally rare.
“In my 30-plus years at Sotheby’s, I’ve never had the privilege of handling a collection of quite this content and caliber,” she said.
