Judith Benahmou-Huet digs down deep into a Christie’s sale to tell the story of Gauguin and “the small Breton town” that gave birth to a a famous collection:

On 31 March, Christie’s is organising a relatively modest sale in Paris (45 works estimated in the region of a million euros) originating, as the catalogue states, from a ‘private European collection’ and which reveals this fascination for the small Breton town. Going under the hammer will be the last remaining pieces from the most famous Pont-Aven School collection, assembled over the course of a lifetime by Samuel Josefowitz.

This businessman who lived in Lausanne and passed away in 2015 had already sold a significant number of artworks to the Indianapolis Museum – 17 paintings and 84 prints in total, fetching $30 million in 1998. The passionate man also donated his entire archives documenting the school to the Pont-Aven Museum.

This local museum, which tells the history of this loose movement that Gauguin steered between 1889 and 1894, will reopen on 26 March.

Gauguin & Co.: The Last Of The Fabled Josefowitz Collection Goes On Sale At Christie’s In Paris. (Judith Benhamou-Huet Reports)