Van Gogh painting commands $62.7 million at New York auction

A painting by Vincent van Gogh sold for $62,710,000, or over €54 million, at a Sotheby’s auction. The 1887 work, titled Piles de romans parisiens et roses dans une verre (Piles of Parisian novels and roses in a glass), sold for 35 percent more than its estimated value.

At the same auction, the self-portrait painting Exquisite Corpus by Frida Kahlo was sold for $55 million. That amount broke three records - the highest amount paid for a Kahlo work, a work by a Latin American artist, and a work by a woman.

The Van Gogh painting, depicting a stack of books on a table, sparked a seven-minute bidding war between Sotheby’s specialist Simon Shaw, dealer David Nahmad, and advisor Patti Wong. The latter ultimately made the winning bid.

A Van Gogh drawing, titled Jardin public avec bancs à la Place Lamartine (Public garden with benches in Place Lamartine), also from 1888, sold at the same auction for $2,978,000. That was on the high end of what the auction house expected.

Another Van Gogh sketch from the same year, titled Le Semeur dans un champ de blé au soleil couchant (The Sower in a Wheat Field at Sunset), sold for $11,155,000 at a different Sotheby’s auction. The auction house expected this sketch to raise between $8 million and $10 million.