Van Gogh in Maastricht

Next week is going to be an exciting one. Maastricht hosts both the annual Art Markets Symposium and Tefaf, one of the world's most important art fairs. One of the highlights of Tefaf is this painting by Van Gogh, 'L'enfant à l'orange'. Expect to pay more than 30 million USD.

Sotheby's stock crashes

A few days ago, Sotheby's had a "disappointing evening". The biggest failure was the buy-in of one of Van Gogh's last paintings. Yesterday, Sotheby's had to announce that it lost $14.6 million on auction guarantees at the sale. Last week's events led to a plunge of the Sotheby's stock.

The auction sensation of the century?

According to The Independent, Sotheby's will soon auction one of Van Gogh's last masterpieces, namely The Fields: "The Fields will be unveiled at Sotheby's in London on 7 October and sold at auction in New York a month later with an estimated list price £17m. But due to its extraordinary provenance and the booming art market, it is likely to provoke one of the heaviest bidding wars in the auction house's history and greatly exceed this price. When the painting was exhibited in Amsterdam in 2001, as a privately owned work, there was an immediate, if vain, rush by buyers to place offers." The Independent already speaks of the "auction sensation of the century".

In a related article, one of Britain's most fashionable "young" artists, Tracey Emin, comments on the piece.

Update: Sotheby's released a press statement concerning the sale.