SHORT TAKES : Van Gogh Portrait to Be Sold

A painting by Vincent van Gogh, loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1984, will leave the museum to be auctioned for an expected price of up to $50 million, Christie’s auction house says.

The painting, “Portrait of Dr. Gachet,” is from the collection of Siegfried Kramarsky, a German-born New York banker who died in 1961. It is being sold by a trust created under his will.

Museum Director Philippe de Montebello said he is not surprised that such a painting is headed for the auction block. “The reduced tax advantages to collectors and the increased sale potential are a combination that is irresistible to collectors and fatal to museums,” he said.

The portrait of Dr. Paul-Ferdinand Gachet was painted six weeks before Van Gogh committed suicide in 1890. It will be auctioned May 15, almost precisely 100 years after it was finished.