Van Gogh at $180m: single-owner collections drive $2.4bn New York sales

Sotheby's expects Vincent van Gogh's Blossoming Chestnut Trees (1890) to sell for around $180m on 18 November, a price that would smash the artist's auction record of $117m. The painting anchors a New York sales week in which the four major auction houses collectively hope to take in at least $2.04bn, with totals potentially exceeding $2.4bn—slightly above last year's estimates for the period.

The confidence rests on a single strategy: single-owner collections. An ArtTactic report released earlier this year found global auction sales up 70% year-on-year at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips in the first six months of 2026, driven in part by the appeal of major estates and single-owner holdings. Such collections allow the houses to rebrand seasonal auctions as one-off events and market the collector's legacy alongside the works themselves.

What is Sotheby's selling?

Sotheby's projects more than $1.1bn for the marquee season, a house record. Around 40% of that comes from the Blaquier-Arrieta collection: 12 fully guaranteed Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Fauvist paintings expected to fetch around $450m, the highest-value single-owner collection on offer in the city this season.

The collection was assembled by Argentine sugar magnate Carlos Pedro Blaquier and his wife, María Elena "Nelly" Arrieta de Blaquier. Blaquier faced charges relating to the kidnapping of suspected left-wing activists during Argentina's military dictatorship; he denied the allegations and died in 2023 without standing trial. The couple's five children are consigning the paintings.

Most works were acquired in Europe in the 1960s and 70s, when museum-quality Modern masters were still available from commercial galleries—a situation Sotheby's specialists say no longer exists, even with a seven-figure budget. The family rarely loaned works publicly; until Sotheby's showed them at the Breuer Building on the Upper East Side, few of the 12 had been exhibited or offered in decades.

"The market is very much moved by these collections," says Allegra Bettini, Sotheby's head of Modern evening auction. "Collectors today like to understand a narrative and see where works are coming from to understand the taste of how they all hung together."

Bettini adds of the Van Gogh: "It's hard to not want to just touch and feel these brushstrokes because it is so alive. There's an intensity to it that really brings us into this landscape with the artist."

Another likely recordbreaker is Paul Cezanne's Arlequin (1888–90), estimated at around $120m. Sotheby's says it is the only harlequin from the series still in private hands; the Cezanne auction record stands at $137.79m, set at the Paul Allen sales at Christie's. The Blaquier-Arrieta group also includes works by Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Sotheby's will additionally sell works from the collections of oil tycoon Armand Hammer, Richard and Elizabeth Hedreen, and Theodore and Ruth Baum.

What does Christie's have?

Christie's expects between $823m and $1.1bn. The leading lot is Wassily Kandinsky's Bauhaus-period Betonte Ecken (1922-23), once in the Guggenheim collection and reportedly bought by the Nahmad family at Sotheby's in 1986, estimated at $60m to $80m in the 20th Century evening sale on 17 November. Gustav Klimt's Litzlbergkeller (1915-16), once owned by Neue Galerie co-founder Serge Sabarsky, carries the same estimate. An untitled 1983 Basquiat referencing a Leonardo da Vinci drawing leads the 21st century sale at $30m to $50m.

Christie's is also offering works from collectors including Clive Davis, William Koch and the late Agnes Gund, plus seven works understood to be consigned by Jeff Koons.

Stock market volatility after the US midterm elections has not dented specialist optimism. "The art's quality is going to supersede any day in the market. People aren't day-trading Picassos," says Kat Widing, Christie's head of the 21st century evening sale. Collectors, she notes, "are looking at these works over months, and they're thinking through these major purchases."

Phillips expects $80.4m to $128.7m, led by Modigliani's limestone Tête (1911-12), estimated at $28m to $35m after more than 50 years in one private collection. Bonhams estimates at least $40m, with five fresh Constantin Brancusi bronzes acquired from the artist's estate expected to fetch $25m collectively.

The results next week will test whether the first-half recovery has legs into 2027.