Vincent Van Gogh’s Les canots amarrés (Moored Boats) will go under the hammer for the first time in thirty years at Christie’s Hong Kong. The painting is expected to fetch $230 million to $380 million HK (about $30 million to $50 million USD), becoming the most expensive piece from the artist’s time in Paris.
For several decades, the painting was held in the collection of the Royal Family of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, descendants of monarchs who ruled over Sicily and southern Italy. According to Artnet, the piece was originally purchased by Italian actress Edy Vessel at Sotheby’s London in 1991, and is currently being sold by Vessel’s daughter, Princess Camilla, who acquired it through a family trust.
Les canots amarrés belongs to a triptych of summer scenes in Asnières, created during Van Gogh’s two-year stay in France. With a breath of fresh air and warm light, the artist opts to embrace nature amidst expanding industry in France. The work captures a signature panoramic slice of life in a dreamy approach to landscape that would come to define his career.
The painting is set to shatter the current record for the most expensive Western work sold in Asia, towering over Warrior by Jean-Michel Basquiat which sold for $323.6 million HK ($41.7 million USD) in 2021. Following Les canots amarrés, Claude Monet’s Nymphéas, estimated at $200 million to $280 million HK ($25 million to $35 million USD), is slated to headline the new HQ’s opening show at The Henderson on September 26, 2024.
For more information about the public exhibition and proceeding auction, check out Christie’s.
