Buyer Of Van Gogh Masterpiece Revealed

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday April 9, 1987

By PETER HARTCHER, Staff Correspondent

TOKYO, Thursday: A Japanese insurance company has disclosed that it paid the record price for a painting at auction, Pound24.75 million ($A56 million), for Van Gogh's work Sunflowers.

The price was set at a Christie's auction in London 10 days ago on the 134th anniversary of the Dutch artist's birth. The price paid tripled the former record for a painting at auction.

The company, Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Co Ltd, middling in size on the Japanese scale, spent the equivalent of 40 per cent of its annual net profit to buy the painting for its 1,000-work art gallery.

In December the company bought two Renoirs for a total of $A3.6 million in preparation for its centenary in October next year.

It particularly wanted Sunflowers for three reasons, according to a statement issued yesterday.

First, Van Gogh was one of the most popular painters in Japan, and Sunflowers often appeared in Japanese art textbooks.

Second, of the seven sunflower paintings which Van Gogh created during his most valued period, 1888 to 1889, this was the last one available.

There are five held in private and national collections in the Western world. One was in Japan, but destroyed by fire during World War II.

The company said: "If we lost this chance, Japan will not have another."

Third, Van Gogh painted Sunflowers in 1889, one year after the date of the establishment of Yasuda.