A Van Gogh unseen for half a century goes to auction on 18 November

The Van Gogh at the heart of this sale has no price on its lot page. The house lists the estimate (the price range an auction house expects a work to reach) as upon request. The Associated Press puts the figure at $180 million.

Van Gogh painted Châtaigniers en fleurs, or Chestnut Trees in Flower, in Auvers on 24 May 1890. It is oil on canvas and measures 70 by 58 centimetres. He made it after his release from a psychiatric asylum in May 1890, the report says.

Cézanne's Arlequin carries an estimate of $120 million in the same report. It is one of four portraits of the artist's son as a Harlequin. The other three are in major museums. Neither painting has been seen in public for half a century. Both are expected to set records for their artists on 18 November.

The context

Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier and her husband, Carlos Pedro Blaquier, built the collection. She was an Argentine collector and he a sugar magnate, and their children are now selling it. Together the dozen works are valued at almost half a billion dollars.

Sotheby's says the couple began buying in the 1960s. Many works have a rich provenance (the record of who has owned a work), with Albert Lasker, Norton Simon and Lord Rothschild among earlier owners.

Three other lots on the sale page show their estimates. Monet's Le Jardin des Tuileries is set at $15 million to $20 million. Renoir's En Canot is $25 million to $35 million. Pissarro's Paris street scene is $30 million to $40 million.

Helena Newman, the house's head of Impressionist and modern art, called the group a "mini-Musée D'Orsay". The sale page traces it from early 1870s Impressionist experiments through Post-Impressionism (the work of painters who followed the Impressionists).

The New York showing of the sale runs from 7 to 17 November. Earlier stops were London, Taipei, Hong Kong and Paris. The evening sale starts at 6:00 PM New York time on 18 November.

Our view

We think a reported estimate is only a report until the house gives its own number. The gap between a news figure and a blank lot page is a useful reminder.

I checked my wallet, and it politely declined to attend.

What do you think?