Sotheby’s Pulls Three Cézannes From Paris Sale for Aix-en-Provence Museum

Sotheby’s has withdrawn three Paul Cézanne paintings from its "Le Temps Retrouvé: The Schlumberger Collection" evening sale in Paris on Thursday, timed to Art Basel Paris, after the town of Aix-en-Provence moved to acquire them for the Musée Granet with support from the French Ministry of Culture.

The three works — La Ferme, Arbres au Bord de la Rivière and Ciel Entre les Arbres — carried a combined estimate of $1.57 million to $2.24 million (€1.4 million to €2 million). They were painted between 1862 and 1864. Sotheby’s said it has been in discussions with the Schlumberger family and the town of Aix-en-Provence, which now intends to acquire the artworks for the museum, where they will hang alongside other work by the artist in Cézanne’s hometown.

Thomas Bompard, co-head of modern and contemporary art at Sotheby’s France, said in a statement that there "could scarcely be a more fitting homecoming for these three remarkable paintings." The works were created at the Jas de Bouffan, the family estate and early studio of Cézanne, which was a critical part of his artistic evolution.

Why do these paintings matter to Aix-en-Provence?

The three canvases began as something other than portable paintings. They formed a large mural painted on the ground floor walls of the Jas de Bouffan, a tribute to the great masters of the past whom Cézanne admired. After the estate was dispersed, the mural was detached from the walls and transferred to canvas in 1899. It was then divided into eight fragments.

Bompard said the paintings have "an extraordinary connection to Aix-en-Provence. We are delighted to have helped bring together the Schlumberger family and the town of Aix-en-Provence, and that—thanks to their commitment and the support of the French Ministry of Culture—a perfect path has been found to enable the works to return to the place where their story began."

What does the withdrawal change for the sale?

The withdrawal thins a marquee evening auction that Sotheby’s had built around the Schlumberger Collection for the Art Basel Paris week, when the French capital draws collectors and institutions from around the world. It also shows how auction houses can broker private treaty outcomes with public bodies when heritage considerations come into play. The deal, once completed, would reunite works from Cézanne’s earliest period of serious production with the Musée Granet’s holdings and with the walls of the Jas de Bouffan itself, fragments of a mural returning to within miles of where they were first painted.