Van Gogh painting almost sold for $US80 in Tokyo

We missed THAT great change to get this picture



for the price of of a good meal!

TOKYO Feb 7 - A Van Gogh oil painting would have changed hands for just about 80 dollars as the work of an anonymous artist at an auction scheduled for the weekend, if not for a last-minute seal of authentification.

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam told the Tokyo auctioneer, Shinwa Art Auction Co., in the small hours of Friday that the profile of a middle-aged peasant woman was an early work by the Dutch impressionist master (1853-1890).

``We received from the museum overnight a research report which has certified the work as an authentic Van Gogh,'' Shinwa managing director Shinji Hasada told AFP on Friday

``From the beginning, we had considered the possibility that the painting was a Van Gogh,'' he said. ``But we initially set its estimated bidding price at 10,000-20,000 yen (US$83-US$167) because we had to state its painter as unknown.''

Hasada has now raised the estimated price under the hammer at Satuday's auction to at least three million yen (US$25,000).

The dark brownish oil canvas, 41 centimetres (16.4 inches) high by 35 centimetres (14 inches) wide, is certified by the museum as the ``Peasant Woman'' which was painted between November 1884 and May 1885 when Van Gogh worked in Neunen.

It was one of some 170 pieces of art work to be placed in the auction as part of a collection of the late Japanese painter Kazumasa Nakagawa (1893-1991) an admirer of Van Gogh and French impressionist giant Paul Cezanne.

The auctioneer asked the museum a month ago to verify the work as it resembled ``Peasant Woman'' which was included in an art catalogue published in 1928 although there were ``a few differences'' between the two, Hasada said.

The Van Gogh Museum paintings curator Louis van Tilborgh explained in the report to the auctioneer that the painting was restored twice around 1950.

He said as a result the painting ``has lost most of its original character and Van Gogh's characteristic brushstrokes are only partially recognisable.''

Harada said, ``There are no particular going rates for Van Gogh's works. This work is produced in his very early period and it's very difficult to value it. - AFP


ABC News

Auctioneer verifies new Van Gogh find