Masterpieces haunted by brutal past could send records tumbling at Sotheby’s
Twelve rarely seen masterpieces from the Blaquier-Arrieta collection, including works by Van Gogh and Cézanne, will be auctioned at Sotheby's in New York on Wednesday, with estimates reaching $180m for the Van Gogh.
The collection resembles a miniature Courtauld gallery, featuring Van Gogh's towering chestnut tree, Monet's shimmering vista of the Tuileries, and Paul Cézanne's Arlequin, a portrait of his son that inspired Picasso's Harlequins. The paintings were acquired by a wealthy Argentinian couple mostly in the 1970s and are expected to fetch record prices.
Sotheby's has titled its auction 'Legendary' because the collection is regarded as so tasteful and high class. The artworks, which would typically be found in a museum, were displayed in the couple's Buenos Aires apartment as old photos show. However, the collection is stained by allegations of abduction and murder connected to its founder.
Dark history
Carlos Pedro Blaquier, the head of the Ledesma sugar company, was suspected of involvement in the 'disappearance' of hundreds of people in the Jujuy region during the Night of the Blackout in July 1976. The local electricity, controlled by Ledesma, was cut out, allowing arrests to be made in darkness. Witnesses described people being carried off in Ledesma's company vans.
According to the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, most of the approximately 400 people seized were trade unionists who worked for Blaquier's Ledesma sugar company. Up to 55 are still missing, presumed murdered. This was one of many atrocities committed across Argentina between 1976 and 1983 by the military dictatorship.
He was never actually convicted of a crime; in fact, he maintained his innocence throughout, stating he had no knowledge that his company's resources were being used to facilitate illegal activity.
Record prices expected
Van Gogh's Châtaigniers en fleurs is estimated 'in the region of $180m' (£136m), which would beat the current record for one of his works at $117m. The painting depicts a windswept street in Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh moved in 1890 after leaving an asylum. He would shoot himself two months after completing this melancholic masterpiece.
Cézanne's Arlequin is also expected to fetch a record price for the artist. The portrait shows his son in a red and black diamond-patterned costume whose angularity pushes into abstraction. Sotheby's ignores the troubling side of the collection's history in its publicity material, despite it being in the public domain.
The auction will write the 'legend' of the Blaquier-Arrieta collection into the history books, while the alleged crimes of Blaquier and the Ledesma sugar company risk being forgotten. The collection's visibility highlights the artworks' beauty but obscures the dark history surrounding their acquisition.
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