Argentina's Sealed $450m Collection Surfaces at Sotheby's

Sotheby's unveiled the Blaquier-Arrieta collection in London on September 30, and outlets say its $180m Van Gogh could break the artist's auction record in November.

For decades, five Impressionist masterpieces from the Blaquier-Arrieta collection sat reportedly "under lock and key" at the family's La Biznaga estate outside Buenos Aires, per The Art Newspaper. On September 30, five of the twelve works went on show at Sotheby's in London, launching an international tour before a November 18 sale in New York. The Art Newspaper reports the collection of twelve paintings is expected to fetch around $450m, with Sotheby's chairman Helena Newman calling it a "time capsule" of the 1970s London market. According to CNN, former Sotheby's director Philip Hook said the collection "really is the stuff of legend" because the family never loaned works out, meaning nobody knew exactly what was inside until now.

The top lot, Van Gogh's *Châtaignier en fleurs roses et blanches* (May 1890), was last shown publicly at New York's Guggenheim in 1964, according to The Art Newspaper. Painted at Auvers-sur-Oise in the final months of the artist's life, it carries a $180m estimate — well above the $117m auction record set by *Orchard with Cypresses* at Christie's in 2022. The Art Newspaper reports Newman believes the painting could reach $200m or more, describing it as "a market-defining moment." Reuters via Global Banking & Finance Review quotes Newman saying the work is "exploding with positivity and joy and exuberance," despite being painted just three months before Van Gogh's death.

Cézanne's *Arlequin* (1888–90) is the only one of four Harlequin paintings not held by a museum, according to CNN. The Art Newspaper notes it has not been exhibited in London since 1954 and that no comparable portrait has appeared at auction since 1988, with Sotheby's expecting around $120m — which would be a record for the artist at auction. CNN reports the work passed through the hands of dealers Ambroise Vollard, Paul Durand-Ruel and Paul Rosenberg before the Blaquier family bought it in 1975, and appeared in seminal Cézanne exhibitions at MoMA, the Tate and the Art Institute of Chicago. Global Banking & Finance Review, citing Reuters, notes Cézanne's private-sale record is the reported $250m paid for *The Card Players*.

The London venue is not incidental. The Art Newspaper reports seven of the twelve paintings were bought from the Lefevre Gallery on Bruton Street in the 1970s, when the Argentine couple came to London almost every year in search of art. Among the works on show: Pissarro's *La Place du Théâtre-Français* (est $30m–$40m), unseen in London since 1942–43; Monet's *Le Jardin des Tuileries* (est $15m–$20m), last shown there in 1957; and Renoir's *En Canot* (est $25m–$35m), which has never been shown in London, per The Art Newspaper. The timing coincides with two new London Impressionism exhibitions at the Royal Academy and the National Gallery, the outlet notes.

The sale follows the deaths of Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier in 2020 and Carlos Pedro Blaquier in 2023, with their children selling the Impressionist core while retaining Argentine and Latin American holdings, The Art Newspaper reports. Newman describes the moment as "a return of interest in the very top blue-chip quality" after years of contemporary art dominating the top end. CNN places the sale in a line of mega-collection sell-offs — SI Newhouse, Paul Allen, Pauline Karpidas, Leonard Lauder — that have buoyed the market, and notes Sotheby's has guaranteed the twelve-piece collection, though the amount was undisclosed. According to The Art Newspaper, a 2023 Argentine customs dispute over exported paintings was resolved earlier this year.

After London, the tour travels to Taipei, Hong Kong and Paris before the November 18 evening sale in New York, with Taiwan singled out by Newman — per The Art Newspaper — as a key stop for its "deeply embedded" Impressionist collectors. The Van Gogh missed London on "scheduling issues" but is expected to join the tour. If both top lots set records, CNN notes it would be the second time Van Gogh's and Cézanne's auction records fell on the same night from one collection, after Christie's 2022 Paul Allen sale. Newman, quoted by The Art Newspaper, expects around $450m — "plus, maybe plus" — as American tech billionaires, Middle Eastern institutions and Asian collectors compete for museum-quality works.