At a glance
- Estimate: about 161.2 million euros (180 million dollars), excluding fees, according to Sotheby’s; the lot page reads “upon request”.
- Sale: 18 November 2026 at 6 pm at Sotheby’s New York, lot 5 of the “Legendary: The Blaquier-Arrieta Collection” sale.
- Record in sight: Van Gogh’s auction record, about 105 million euros (117.2 million dollars) with fees at Christie’s in 2022.
- The work: a 70 x 58 cm canvas painted in Auvers-sur-Oise around 24 May 1890, unseen in public for more than sixty years.
- The collection: twelve paintings expected to fetch around 403 million euros (450 million dollars).
On 18 November 2026, Sotheby’s will offer Châtaigniers en fleurs in New York, a landscape Van Gogh painted in Auvers-sur-Oise in May 1890, with the stated aim of breaking the artist’s auction record. The estimate, the records at stake and the story of the painting.
What is Châtaigniers en fleurs worth?
The lot 5 page shows no figure: the estimate is given “upon request”. Yet Sotheby’s press release of 30 September 2026 puts it at around 161.2 million euros (in the region of 180 million dollars), at the ECB reference rate of 6 November 2026. This figure excludes the buyer’s premium; the price published after the sale will include it. Simon Shaw, Senior Advisor at Sotheby’s New York, calls it the greatest Van Gogh offered at auction since the Portrait of Dr Gachet in 1990. The lot is also marked as guaranteed: the seller is assured a minimum price.
Van Gogh’s record: 105 million euros
Van Gogh’s auction record belongs to Verger avec cyprès (1888), sold for about 105 million euros at the rate of 6 November 2026 (117,180,000 dollars) at Christie’s New York on 9 November 2022. Sotheby’s believes Châtaigniers en fleurs is poised to beat it. Even so, it would not become the most expensive modern work ever sold at auction: that title belongs to Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, about 211.7 million euros (236.4 million dollars) at Sotheby’s New York in November 2025. For comparison, see our ranking of the world’s most expensive paintings (in French).
Painted in Auvers around 24 May 1890
Released from the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Van Gogh arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise in May 1890; he would spend the last two months of his life there. In one of the first canvases of that stay, a huge chestnut tree in bloom fills almost the whole picture; below, a solitary walker passes three women with parasols. According to Sotheby’s, only eight landscapes from the Auvers period remain in private hands, and only ten paintings from that period have come to auction in forty years.
From Theo van Gogh to the Blaquiers
The canvas first passed to Theo van Gogh, then to his widow Johanna van Gogh-Bonger. The dealer Paul Cassirer sold it in 1906 to the Prince de Wagram; by 1909 it belonged to Gustave Fayet, the collector to whom the Fondation Louis Vuitton is devoting an exhibition this autumn (in French), then to the Berlin publisher Samuel Fischer. Next came Marcel Kapferer, the Hollywood producer George “Buddy” DeSylva and the New Yorker Harriet Harris-Jonas. The Blaquiers bought it from Wildenstein in 1975; it has not been shown in public since.
403 million euros for twelve paintings
The twelve paintings were assembled in Buenos Aires by Carlos Pedro Blaquier and Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier, partly from the Lefevre Gallery in London in the 1970s. Paul Cézanne’s Arlequin (1888-1890), for which the painter’s son posed, is estimated at around 107.5 million euros (in the region of 120 million dollars): it is the only one of Cézanne’s four Harlequins still in private hands, according to the auction house.
Next come Pissarro’s La Place du Théâtre-Français, 26.9 to 35.8 million euros (30 to 40 million dollars), Renoir’s En Canot, 22.4 to 31.3 million euros (25 to 35 million dollars), Degas’s Avant la course, 17.9 to 26.9 million euros (20 to 30 million dollars), and Monet’s Le Jardin des Tuileries, 13.4 to 17.9 million euros (15 to 20 million dollars). Most of these works have never been offered at auction, according to Sotheby’s.
On view in New York until 17 November
After London, Taipei, Hong Kong and Paris, the collection is on view at Sotheby’s New York from 7 to 17 November 2026, free entry by reservation. In October, in Paris, the auction house sold Claude Monet’s Iris for 50 million euros (in French).
| Work | Châtaigniers en fleurs |
| Artist | Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) |
| Date | around 24 May 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise |
| Medium and size | oil on canvas, 70 x 58 cm |
| Catalogue raisonné | de la Faille F751 |
| Provenance | Theo van Gogh, Paul Cassirer, Gustave Fayet, Samuel Fischer, Wildenstein, Blaquier-Arrieta Collection (1975) |
| Sale | Legendary: The Blaquier-Arrieta Collection, lot 5 |
| Auction house, date and place | Sotheby’s New York, 18 November 2026, 6 pm (local time) |
| Estimate | upon request; about 161.2 million euros (180 million dollars), excluding fees, according to the press release |
| Record to beat | about 105 million euros (117.2 million dollars) with fees, Verger avec cyprès, Christie’s, 2022 |
| Exhibition | Sotheby’s New York, 7 to 17 November 2026 |
Euros: ECB reference rate of 6 November 2026, 1 euro to 1.1165 dollars.
Information checked on 9 November 2026. Sources: Sotheby’s press release of 30 September 2026, lot 5 page, Sotheby’s, sale page, Sotheby’s, Sotheby’s article of 30 October 2026 on the estimate, Sotheby’s New York results, November 2025, Paul G. Allen Collection results, Christie’s.
