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Van Gogh Painting Set to Fetch $16.8 Million at Auction
A painting by the iconic artist Vincent Van Gogh is expected to sell for almost $17 million when it goes under the hammer in his homeland of Holland in March.
Called ‘Peasant Woman in Front of a Farmhouse’, the painting was created by the legendary artist in 1885, four years before his death.
It belonged to farm supplier John Holme who had received it as part payment for his services in 1929, and remained with his family until 1967 after which it was sold off for a mere $5, due to no-one realising its prestigious provenance.
The painting was verified as a real Van Gogh edition in the late 1960s and was thereafter sold to its current American owner for $1.7 million.
Now the piece is up for grabs once again and will be auctioned next month at the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht in the Netherlands, where it is expected to fetch over $16.8 million.
Van Gogh did not start painting until the age of 27 or 28 and died at the young age of 37 in 1890.
During his decade spent painting he created around 900 works on canvas and 1,100 works on paper - equating to around two paintings and two drawings a week.