A Paul Gaugin painting has sold for “close to $300 million” (£197 million), smashing the previous record for the most expensive single work of art.
The 1892 painting of two Tahitian girls by the French post-impressionist called ‘Nafea Faa Ipoipo?’ (When Will You Marry?) was sold by Swiss collector Rudolf Staechelin to the state-financed Qatar Museums in a private sale.
Staechelin’s family trust had inherited the work from his grandfather, along with 25 other valuable impressionist and post-impressionist works.
The painting had been on permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum in Basel for half a century, but Staechelin recently withdrew all his works from the museum after apparently falling out with the institution.
The sale broke the previous record for the most expensive artwork, a record set in 2011 with the sale of Paul Cezanne’s The Card Players for $159 million (£105 million).
Paul Gauguin’s Nafea Faa Ipoipo (1892)
1 Comment
Hi,
“Gauguin painting sold for $300 million, smashing previous record”. I went to the Gauguin exhibition in Basel last week, a wonderful comprehensive collection of Paul Gauguin’s works. This will probably the last such opportunity as the works have gained the eye of the speculators and are sell at exuberant prices. At the same exhibition is Peter Doig a contemporary Scots artist making the impression as the best of the day. An exhibition a visit worthwhile with Easyjet to Basel its not expansive. Take the bus from the airport (not a taxi 50 Sfr) for 5 Sfr to the SBB station and then tram Nr 6 to the “The Fondation Beyeler” stop.