Overview
- Multiple Argentine outlets citing Artnet reported on Thursday that Sotheby’s has been consigned a group of works from the Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier estate with a combined valuation near US$450 million, but Sotheby’s and the Blaquier heirs have not publicly confirmed the sale.
- The set is said to include paintings by Van Gogh, Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley, Vlaminck and Gauguin, and market estimates circulated in reporting place some individual canvases in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars.
- A dozen works were exported to Luxembourg in June 2019 under a temporary permit that required reimportation, and Argentine customs annulled a later sanction in July 2026, removing a legal barrier that had complicated overseas sales.
- Sources say Sotheby’s won the consignation over Christie’s after the rival house had previously handled and sold Blaquier pieces, including a private Van Gogh sale reported near US$190 million.
- If the sale proceeds it could limit public access to a long‑secret national collection, shift important masterpieces into the global market and leave decisions about donations or museum loans to the Blaquier heirs.