[intro]Now Available at Half Price . . . Maybe[/intro]

The eagle-eyed Georgina Adam picked up on this consignor’s move. Not only was this Van Gogh at TEFAF, it was shown at Palm Beach and surely shopped to a number of different potential buyers. In a few week or so, we’ll know better whether it can attract buyers at a greatly reduced auction estimate:

Among Christie’s stars for its June sale is the beautiful “Parc de l’hôpital Saint-Paul” (1889) by Van Gogh, a view of the artist’s asylum in St Rémy-de-Provence. But the painting, for all its charm, has had its price trimmed since it was featured – with its own booklet – at the Maastricht European Fine Art Fair last year. Then it was on Dickinson’s stand, priced at $25m (£15m at that time), coming from a private Swiss collection. “We did have interest,” says James Roundell of the dealership, “but we weren’t able to conclude a sale at the time.” Now, in Christie’s sale, its estimate is a more sober £8m-£12m.

The Art Market: Basel–and Some London Blockbusters (Financial Times)

The Washington Post tells the poignant story behind the van Gogh recently authenticated and the collector who cried Vermeer too many times to be taken seriously on the one painting he was absolutely right about:

Hannema became director of the respected Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam in 1921 at age 26. Born to a wealthy art-collecting family, he was talented, successful, good looking and supremely confident in his judgment of art, said Ralph Keuning, the director of Museum de Fundatie.

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands he was given responsibility for all the museums in the country. After the war in 1945 he was arrested and stood trial for collaboration, but he was never convicted and was released from internment two years later.Continue Reading