Stolen Art DealerVan Gogh’s spring orchard: a large pink-and-white peach tree with a dark forked trunk at left, an orange-tan wicker fence across the middle, small white-pink trees and a row of dark green cypresses beyond it, and a blue-green ditch at lower right, all under a sky of pale blue, yellow and pink dabs.
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Catalogue No. 07 · Christie’s · New York
Orchard with Cypresses
Sold for
$117.2million
Christie’s, New York · 9 November 2022 · 8th of 392 in the Record Book
Confirmed by two sourcesAbout $132.6 million in today’s money: 1,500 years of the typical US household’s income. Source
- Artist
- Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)
- Title
- Orchard with Cypresses (Verger avec cyprès)
- Date
- 1888
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 65.2 × 80.2 cm (25¾ × 31⅞ in)
Look closer
Blossoming peach tree
A large pink-and-white peach tree stands left of centre, its dark trunk forking into thin purple branches. It is one of the two mature peach trees in the scene, painted in the spring burst that produced 14 orchard canvases.
Stippled sky
The sky is made of dense dabs of pale blue, yellow and pink, with no flat area. The Art Newspaper says this stippled, pointillist-influenced touch sets the canvas apart from its near twin in the Kröller-Müller Museum.
Row of cypresses
A row of dark green cypresses rises above the fence at the upper right, planted as a windbreak against the mistral. They are among the first Van Gogh painted, a year before the motif took over his work in Saint-Rémy.
Listen to the story
The narration from our Reel, about a minute long.
Read the narration
Van Gogh's record stood for thirty-two years. Vincent van Gogh painted this in Arl, in April eighteen eighty-eight. Spring brought blossom, and fourteen orchard canvases in about a month. Look at that sky: dabs of blue, yellow and pink, no flat patch. On the right, cypresses, a windbreak against the mistral. Among the first he painted. He sent it to his brother Theo, who acquired it on the seventh of May. Theo's widow, Jo, inherited it. By nineteen twenty-eight, it was in New York. By nineteen thirty-eight, heiress Joan Whitney Payson had it. In nineteen ninety-eight, Paul Allen bought it. Allen, Microsoft's co-founder, died in twenty eighteen. Christie's sold his collection in twenty twenty-two. Sold… for one hundred seventeen point two million dollars. A Van Gogh auction record. It beat Portrait of Doctor Gah-shay's eighty-two point five million dollars, set in nineteen ninety. In nineteen thirty-five, in New York, it reportedly sold at auction for fifteen thousand dollars. As of twenty twenty-six, nothing has beaten it. The record still stands.
Vincent van Gogh painted this in Arles in April 1888. Spring had brought the orchards into blossom, and he painted 14 blossoming-orchard canvases in about a month. This one shows peach trees in flower beside a reed fence, with a row of cypresses planted as a windbreak against the mistral. They are among the first cypresses he painted.
He sent it to his brother Theo, who acquired it on 7 May 1888. It passed to Theo’s widow, Jo, and by 1928 it was in New York. At auction there in 1935 it reportedly fetched $15,000. The heiress Joan Whitney Payson had it by 1938, and in 1998 the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen bought it.
Allen died in 2018. On 9 November 2022 Christie’s New York sold the painting from his collection. Christie’s published no estimate, only that it expected more than $100 million, according to The Art Newspaper. The hammer fell at $102 million. With fees the price was $117.2 million, paid by an anonymous buyer.
It beat Portrait of Dr Gachet, which made $82.5 million in 1990. As of October 2026, it remains the highest auction price for a Van Gogh.
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The sale
- Auction house
- Christie’s, New York
- Date
- 9 November 2022
- Lot
- 22
- Sold for
- $117.2 million (including buyer’s premium)
- Record
- Highest auction price ever paid for a Van Gogh (as of October 2026)
Test your eye on the market: set your estimates
Provenance
April 1888
Painted by Vincent van Gogh in Arles.
7 May 1888
Acquired from the artist by his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris.
From 1890–91
Passed by descent to Theo’s widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger.
By 1905 to at least 1912
Andries Bonger, Amsterdam.
Before 1928
The D’Audretsch and Jack Niekerk galleries, The Hague.
1928
Howard Young Art Gallery, New York, which brought the painting to America.
Before 1935
N.H. Holston, then J.K. Newman, both of New York.
6 December 1935
Sold at the J.K. Newman sale, American Art Association, New York, lot 39, to Carstairs Art Gallery. The price was reportedly $15,000. Reported
By 1938
Charles Shipman and the heiress Joan Whitney Payson, New York. It then passed by descent.
22 June 1998
Acquired in a private sale by Paul G. Allen, the Microsoft co-founder.
2018–2022
Allen died in 2018 and the painting became part of his estate.
9 November 2022
Sold at Christie’s New York, in The Paul G. Allen Collection, for $117,180,000 including fees, to an anonymous buyer.
See it on a wall
Sources
- Christie’s lot page: Orchard with Cypresses, lot 22
- AP via ABC17: Art from Microsoft founder Paul Allen sells for $1.5 billion
- The Art Newspaper: Van Gogh landscape coming up for auction should fetch more than $100m
- The Art Newspaper: The ten most expensive Van Gogh paintings
- Guinness World Records: Most expensive painting by Van Gogh sold at auction
Prices include the buyer’s premium, in US dollars at the time of sale, unless marked as a hammer price.
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