An early landscape by Dutch Impressionist Vincent Van Gogh sold for €7.07 million ($8.27 million) at an auction in Paris on June 4, 2018. Painted in 1882, it depicts peasant women working on the land under a cloudy sky, inspired by the countryside around The Hague, where Van Gogh passed a short but formative period. The painting, the first Van Gogh to be auctioned in France for more than 20 years, had been valued at €3 million to €5 million. It was purchased by a buyer based in North America, auction house Artcurial said. On average, only two or three works of Van Gogh appear on the international market each year, the auction house said. While hardly cheap, the price comes nowhere near the Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th century portrait of Christ, due to go on display in a new branch of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi.
An Artcurial employee poses as he holds the painting «Raccommodeuses de filets dans les dunes, 1882» (Women Mending Nets in the Dunes) by Vincent Van Gogh during a preview for media at their auction house in Paris, France March 28, 2018. Picture taken March 28, 2018. | Photo Credit: REUTERS