Breaking: Qatar purchase of $250-$300 million ‘Card Players’ by Paul Cézanne is most expensive art sale in history
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Paul Cézanne, Card Players, Qatar, via Vanity Fair
The royal family of Qatar has just publicized its $250-$300 million purchase of Card Players by Paul Cézanne. The work is one in a series of five, but until now was the only one remaining in private collection. Previous owner, Greek shipping mogul George Embiricos, became receptive to the sale just prior to his death in 2011. Vanity Fair reports that William Acquavella and Larry Gagosian were outbid for Card Players, at comparable amounts rumored up to $220 million. Even the low estimate of $250 million, factoring in exchange rate and tax fees, marks the highest sum in history ever paid for a single work of art in either auction or private sale by double.
Paul Cézanne, Card Players, Metropolitan Museum of Art, via New York Times
As the title indicates, the series depicts two low-brow card players in Aix-en-Provence. The peasants idealize an old world culture, nostalgic even to the middle-aged artist when he painted from his family’s country estate in the 1890s. At the time, Cézanne was working alone, and his isolation reflects in the sparing surfaces and minimal compositions of the varying card scenes. Only the subtlest of changes differentiate one painting from the next: most notably, the cards themselves change as the games progress, while the faces and suggestively sluggish interactions do not.
Takashi Murakami, currently showing at Gagosian UK: “Does he think he’s too expensive? ‘I think so, yes, honestly, yes’” – via Bloomberg [AO Newslink]
