ART

Vincent van Gogh’s masterpiece, “Irises,” will be sold at auction Nov. 11 by its owner, it was announced in New York by John L. Marion, chairman of Sotheby’s North America. The picture would be sold by John Whitney Payson, whose family has owned it for 40 years. In March, Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” became the most expensive auctioned picture when a Japanese insurance company paid $39.9 million for it. In June, his “The Bridge at Trinquetaille” was sold to a European collector for $20.2 million, the second-highest price ever paid for a painting at public auction. “We expect this painting will bring somewhere between those two figures,” said David Nash, Sotheby’s director of fine arts.