Just when it looked like the major auction houses had exhausted the supply of trophy consignments, another heavyweight collection has surfaced.
Sotheby’s has secured the collection of the late Argentine collectors Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier and Carlos Pedro Blaquier, a group of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces said to be worth around $450 million, according Artnet News.
The consignment is expected to anchor the upcoming auction season and includes paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and others.
The collection comes from one of Argentina’s best-known collecting families. In 1995, The New York Times described Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier as the owner of the country’s largest private art collection. She died in 2020, while Carlos Pedro Blaquier died three years later.
Several of the works could become the biggest sellers of the fall season. Among the highlights is Van Gogh’s Châtaignier en fleurs roses et blanches (Chestnut Tree in Pink and White Blossom) from 1890, which one adviser said could bring between $150 million and $200 million. A Cézanne from the artist’s celebrated Harlequin series is also expected to exceed $120 million, while works by Degas, Pissarro and Renoir are each projected to sell for more than $25 million.
The family’s collection has hit the block before. Christie’s privately sold Van Gogh’s Zouave (1888) for roughly $190 million and offered two Paul Signac paintings from the collection last November. It also won the consignment of the family’s silver collection, estimated at $15 million to $20 million, which will be auctioned in London later this year.
The collection was also caught up in a dispute with Argentine authorities. In 2023, customs officials fined the Blaquier family over the export of about a dozen paintings to Luxembourg, including works by Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Gauguin and Cézanne. The matter was resolved last month after authorities waived the proposed penalty, clearing the way for several of those works to be included in the Sotheby’s sale.
The latest win adds to an increasingly competitive battle for marquee estates and private collections, which have become the key battleground for the major auction houses as they compete for the highest-value consignments.
