Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpiece aims to anchor a $50 million record in Asia’s art market | Trending

A Vincent van Gogh painting depicting the art’s transition from somber realism to colorful impressionism might become the most expensive Western artwork ever sold in Asia if it achieves the highest estimate of $50 million at a Hong Kong auction on Thursday. Visitors looks at works on display Vincent van Gogh at the official unveiling of Chrie�s new Asia Pacific headquarters at the Henderson Centre in Hong Kong on September 20, 2024. (Photo Peter PARKS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ART UPON PUBLICATION – TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION(AFP) “Les canots amarres” — or “the moored boats” — will be the centrepiece of an inaugural evening sale held to celebrate the opening of auction house Chrie’s new Asia Pacific headquarters. According to Chrie’s, it could fetch between HK$230-380 million (US$30-50 million) on the auction floor. To date, the most expensive Western painting sold in the region is “Warrior” Jean-Michel Basquiat, the auction house said. It had the Chrie’s gavel dropped at HK$323.6 million — roughly US$41.9 million at the time — in Hong Kong in 2021. Owned the Italian royal family of Bourbon Two Sicilies, the Van Gogh painting is “the most important painting the art ever to be offered in Asia”, Chrie’s said in its introduction. (Also Read: Singaporean art paints vibrant mural in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore. It captures everyday life) “‘Les canots amarres’ marks a vital stepping stone in his career,” it said to AFP. The painting is one of about 40 works Van Gogh developed around the scenic French town of Asnieres, a boating hub on the outskirts of Paris, during the summer of 1887. With those paintings, “he left behind for good the dark, earthy tones of his real pictures of old. He now adopted a vibrant palette and loose expressive brush instead,” said Chrie’s to AFP. In a letter to his ser Willemien in October 1887, the art wrote: “When I painted landscape in Asnieres this summer, I saw more colour… than ever before.” Princess Camilla of the House of Bourbon Two Sicilies called it a painting “of incredible hory in the very particular moment of the art’s (career)”, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post. She said she chose the Chinese city for the sale to tap into the Asian market’s “strong and expanding base of collectors who are increasingly interested in Western art”. Born in the Netherlands in 1853, Vincent van Gogh was among the most famous and influential figures in Western art. He created around 2,100 pieces, including about 860 oil paintings, in a career that lasted only a decade before his death in 1890. Chrie’s high-profile auction on Thursday will also feature 45 other masterpieces from the 20th and 21st centuries — ranging from the French impression painter Claude Monet to the England-based street art Banksy.