Stolen Art DealerA still life of a plate of large apples and a cup on a table.
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Catalogue No. 1290 · Sotheby's · New York
Nature morte, les grosses pommes
About $66.8 million in today’s money: 760 years of the typical US household’s income. Source
- Artist
- Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
- Title
- Nature morte, les grosses pommes
- Date
- c. 1890-94
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 46.6 x 55.8 cm (18 5/16 x 22 in.)
Cézanne's Nature morte, les grosses pommes is an oil on canvas dated about 1890 to 1894. The subject is a table holding a cup and a plate of big apples.
The online catalogue raisonné entry for a picture of this title, FWN 821, lists Auguste Pellerin and Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, both of Paris, as earlier owners. Jakob Goldschmidt lent the picture to exhibitions in New York and San Francisco between 1939 and 1947. The Independent says it sold in the Goldschmidt sale in October 1958 for £90,000, and The New York Times says George Embiricos bought it for $252,000.
Embiricos sold it at Sotheby's in New York on 11 May 1993, as lot 17, with an estimate of $10 million to $15 million. The Independent and The New York Times both report a price of $28.6 million. The New York Times says the price was an auction record for Cézanne, $11.5 million above any previous price for his work. Both newspapers reported the sale on 12 May 1993.
The sale
- Auction house
- Sotheby's, New York
- Date
- 11 May 1993
- Lot
- 17
- Estimate
- $10,000,000-15,000,000
- Sold for
- $28.6 million (including buyer’s premium) · $28,602,500
- Record
- Auction record for Cézanne at the time of sale; $11.5 million above any previous Cézanne (The New York Times says so) (as of May 1993)
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Provenance
undated
Auguste Pellerin, Paris (catalogue raisonné FWN 821)
undated
Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (catalogue raisonné FWN 821)
1917-1922
Lent by A. Kann to exhibitions in Zurich (1917, tentative identification) and London (1922) Reported
1939-1947
Lent by Jakob Goldschmidt to exhibitions in New York (1939, 1942, 1946, 1947) and San Francisco (1940)
October 1958
Sold in the Jakob Goldschmidt sale in 1958 for £90,000 (The Independent says); bought by George Embiricos for $252,000 (The New York Times says) Reported
1993-05-11
Sold by George Embiricos, Sotheby's, New York, 11 May 1993, lot 17
Sources
- The Independent: Cezanne sale rekindles art market (12 May 1993)
- The New York Times: Million-Dollar Bidding Is Back As a Cezanne Sets a Record (12 May 1993)
- Sotheby's e-catalogue 2007, lot 4 essay, figure caption: Cézanne, Nature Morte: Les grosses pommes, 1890-94, sold Sotheby's New York, May 11, 1993, lot 17
- Cézanne online catalogue raisonné, FWN 821, Grosses pommes
Prices include the buyer’s premium, in US dollars at the time of sale, unless marked as a hammer price.