Under Lock and Key No Longer: The New Impressionist Collection at Sotheby’s New York

By Imogen Taylor

Sotheby’s is, at present, racking up its air miles. Its New York Sales Travelling Exhibitions have reached London, where five paintings from the Blaquier-Arrieta Collection are on show from the 9th to 14th of October. The full group of twelve works is expected to fetch around $450m at auction in New York this November, and one of them could break the record for a painting by artist Vincent van Gogh.

The collection was assembled by the Argentine couple Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier, heiress to the sugar company Ledesma, and her husband Carlos Pedro Blaquier. They began buying and collecting in the 1960s, and seven of the twelve works on show were bought during the 1970s. The couple have since kept these paintings largely out of public view at their estate outside Buenos Aires. Helena Newman, Sotheby’s chairman of Impressionist and Modern art, calls the collection “a time capsule of that golden moment”.

Paul Cezanne, Arlequin, 1888–90, oil on canvas, 92.7 x 65.7 cm. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.

The most striking work, in my opinion, is Paul Cézanne’s Arlequin (1888–90), an intimate portrait of the artist’s son that reflects a shift towards structured abstraction. Estimated at around $120m, it would set a new auction record for Cézanne if it sells at that level. The painting has not been exhibited in London since 1954, and Newman notes that no comparable portrait has reached auction since 1988.

Alongside it hangs Camille Pissarro’s Parisian streetscape featuring La Place du Théâtre-Français (1898), as well as Claude Monet’s Le Jardin des Tuileries (1876) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s En Canot (1877), which was painted in the year the Impressionists took their name. In fact, Renoir’s work has never been displayed in London until now. Maurice de Vlaminck’s Nature morte à la cruche bleue (1906–07) is also on show and displays the liberated colour that announced the arrival of Fauvism.

Vincent van Gogh, Châtaignier en fleurs, 1890, oil on canvas, 70 by 58 cm. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.

The star lot, however, has not travelled to London due to scheduling difficulties. Van Gogh’s Châtaignier en fleurs roses et blanches (May 1890) was painted at Auvers-sur-Oise during the final months of his life and was last shown publicly in New York in 1964. Sotheby’s estimates its sale at $180m (£135m), well above the artist’s current auction record of $117m, set in 2022 by Orchard with Cypresses (1888), which was sold by the auction house’s biggest competitor, Christie’s. Newman suggests that it could even reach $200m or more due to its rarity.

The art critic Alastair Sooke, writing in The Telegraph, suggests that the work may carry a darker message. He points to its stormy blue sky and to a spectral figure, perhaps a Van Gogh self-portrait, walking towards a coffin-like shape as if foretelling his own death. However, Sooke does admit that any interpretation is subjective, since Van Gogh left no written comment on the painting.

The sale also reflects a shifting market. After years of contemporary art dominating the top end, buyers seem to be returning to established names. The focus on Impressionism also correlates with other goings-on in the London art scene, with the Royal Academy’s Painting the French Riviera exhibition and the National Gallery’s Renoir and Love both opening.

After London, the collection travels to Hong Kong and Paris before the Sotheby’s New York sale in November.

Bibliography

Cline, Ruby. “One of Van Gogh’s Final Paintings Could Fetch Record £135m.” The Telegraph, 30 September 2026. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/09/30/one-of-van-gogh-final-paintings-auction/.

Shaw, Anny. “$450m Impressionist Collection—Including a Potentially Record-Breaking

Van Gogh Painting—to Be Sold at Sotheby’s New York.” The Art Newspaper, 30 September 2026. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/09/30/450m-impressionist-collectionincluding-a-potentially-record-breaking-van-gogh-paintingto-be-sold-at-sothebys-new-york.

Sooke, Alastair. “Alastair Sooke Decodes… the Forgotten Van Gogh: Does It Hold a Sinister Message?” The Telegraph, 2 October 2026. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/artists/alastair-sooke-decodes-forgotten-van-gogh.

Sotheby’s. “Legendary: The Blaquier-Arrieta Collection.” New York Sales, November 2026. https://www.sothebys.com/en/series/legendary-the-blaquier-arrieta-collection?locale=en.