Original Van Gogh works fetch over €12m

THREE original works by Vincent van Gogh were auctioned last night at a sale of Impressionist and Modern Art.

Collectively the three works sold for £8,471,750 (12.3m), thought a fitting tribute to one of the greatest cultural heroes of modern times, in the year that marks 150 years since his birth.

La maison de Vincent à Arles, a unique ‘lost’ pen and ink sketch of his house in Arles, with a letter to his brother Theo on the reverse, fetched £845,250 (1.2m) at the auction at Christie’s, London.

Measuring just 21cm high, La maison de Vincent à Arles is an explanatory drawing which until now had been considered lost. The discovery concludes a very significant letter that van Gogh wrote to his brother.

Until today, the drawing had not been on the market or exhibited for nearly 80 years and is considered the only known example of the artist ending a letter on the reverse of a drawing.

Only one line from the letter has ever been published, in 1928, in the de la Faille Catalogue Raisonné of Works on Paper.

Nature morte, vase avec oeillets, dated 1890, sold for £4,261,250 (6.2m).

It is thought to have been painted in the house of Dr Gachet, at Auvers and is considered a fascinating example of the work he produced after he left Paris for the South of France in 1888.

Une liseuse de romans, an oil on canvas, fetched £3,365,250 (4.9m).