The China Mail - Van Gogh work unseen in public for 60 years on show in Hong Kong

The Dutch artist's "Chataigniers en fleurs" ("Chestnut Trees in Blossom") was on show in Hong Kong ahead of its November 18 auction in New York, where it is expected to smash records and fetch around $180 million, according to Sotheby's.

It was one of 12 works owned by late Argentine collectors Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier and Carlos Pedro Blaquier. Others by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Paul Cezanne will also go under the hammer.

The van Gogh, which according to Sotheby's was unseen by the public for over 60 years, portrays a blossoming chestnut tree with a solitary man walking past three women in Japanese attire.

Completed in 1890, it is from the last two months of van Gogh's life.

"It's one of the last, most expressive and hopeful works by van Gogh in this final phase of his career," Scott Niichel, a vice chairman at Sotheby's, told AFP.

It is one of approximately 70 works van Gogh created after leaving the psychiatric asylum of Saint-Remy, where he had created his famous "The Starry Night".

During these final days of his life, van Gogh was producing at a frantic rate -- averaging around one work a day.

He died shortly after at the age of 37, two days after shooting himself in the chest following well-documented mental health struggles.

"This manic frenzy of paint application suggests he has so much more to give, and he's just racing to put it to canvas," Niichel said, noting the thickness of the paint layers.

"Orchard with Cypresses" set the current record for a van Gogh price point, selling for $117.2 million in a 2022 auction.

Niichel said that "anything is possible" for who might claim the painting in November.

"Our revealing in Hong Kong suggests that Asia is certainly a possibility."

O.Tse--ThChM