A rare Vincent van Gogh work that has been part of the same French family's private collection for more than a century will be sold at an auction for the first time since it was painted in the spring of 1887, according to the BBC Thursday.
The Sotheby's auction house will put the painting on public viewing in Amsterdam, Paris and Hong Kong ahead of its sale March 25. It is estimated to fetch between $6 million and $9.7 million.
Titled "A street scene in Montmartre," the work is part of a rare series of paintings on the celebrated Moulin de la Galette, on the hilltop overlooking the French capital, painted during the two years that Van Gogh spent lodging with his brother Theo.
The Dutch artist's work has never been exhibited in public, although it has been well documented and has appeared in multiple catalogues over the years. The landscape depicts a man and woman, strolling arm in arm past a rundown fence with a windmill in the background.
"This is the first time we are able to see it properly," Van Gogh expert Martin Bailey told BBC News.
"What's exciting is that it's a Van Gogh painting which has been hidden away ever since it came off the artist's easel," Bailey said.
Claudia Mercier of the Mirabaud Mercier auction house, which is collaborating with the sale, said Van Gogh's work was "captivating."
In 2019, Sotheby's sold a Parisian-themed painting by Van Gogh for $9.7 million in New York, while another work from 1882, during his "Dutch period," was sold for 7 million euros in France.
Van Gogh arrived in Paris in 1886. He left the city after two years, saying he had gotten tired of the hectic pace of life in the city.
