NEW YORK, Nov 12 — Works painted in the final years of Vincent Van Gogh’s life fetched a combined US$150 million (RM624 million) at a Christie’s Impressionist auction in New York yesterday evening, while a Gustave Caillebotte oil on canvas smashed records for the French artist.

More than 20 pieces spanning Impressionist history — also including works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Berthe Morisot — brought in a total of US$332 million at the auction, which took place at the Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan.

The paintings were part of the Cox Collection of Impressionist art, named for Texas businessman Ed Cox who died in 2020. 

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles purchased Caillebotte’s Young Man at His Window for US$53 million — more than double the previous record set by the artist’s painting Rising Road, which sold for US$22 million in 2019. 

The oil painting depicts a man in a dark suit with his back to the viewer, who seems to be looking at a woman in the distance on a Parisian street outside a large window.

In announcing its successful bid, the museum described the work as a "19th century masterpiece of modern urban realism... regarded as the most important painting by (a) French Impressionist in private hands.”

Among the Van Gogh works were his oil on canvas Wooden Cabins among the Olive Trees and Cypresses, which sold for US$71.3 million, becoming one of the painter’s most expensive works.

Young Man with a Cornflower — painted in the weeks before the Dutch artist’s death at age 37 — far exceeded expectations to fetch US$46.7 million.

A third Van Gogh — a watercolour titled Meules de ble (Wheatstacks) that was seized by Nazis and had remained missing until Cox purchased it in the late 1970s — sold for over US$35 million, an auction record for a Van Gogh work on paper according to The Art Newspaper.

After several seasons held virtually because of the pandemic, this time the auction took place in a hybrid format, with some bidders physically present, while others placed bids via connected rooms in London and Hong Kong, and also online.

"We knew that despite Covid, demand remained very strong,” said Christie’s Chief Executive Guillaume Cerutti. "Last year, we had more difficulties on the supply side, because sellers wanted to wait. This year, the elements are better aligned.” — AFP