Getty May Buy Record-Price Van Gogh

The J. Paul Getty Museum is examining Vincent van Gogh’s “Irises” in possible preparation to buy the Impressionist masterpiece that in 1987 set an art auction record when it sold for almost $54 million, sources at the museum said Tuesday.

According to one source who has seen the painting at the Malibu museum, “Irises” was delivered to the museum last week and has been viewed by some of the museum’s trustees, who must approve all major Getty acquisitions.

Another source said that negotiations are well under way and that a formal announcement of the purchase could come as early as next week.

The owner of the painting is financially troubled Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond. He has been entertaining offers for the painting for at least two months.

According to museum sources, the Getty’s holding of the painting before a purchase is a standard practice in the art world. Museums often conduct extensive examinations of artworks--checking their authenticity or studying them for possible damage, for example--before formal acquisition.

“We have not bought the painting. No agreement has been signed. No money has changed hands,” said George Goldner, the Getty’s acting curator of paintings.

Citing museum policy, Getty press officer Lori Starr declined to discuss the deal.

Diana Levitt, press officer for Sotheby’s New York auction house, which sold the painting in 1987 and is reportedly acting as an agent for Bond, also declined to comment.

“Irises” is an extraordinarily beautiful flower painting done in 1889, a year before Van Gogh’s suicide. It is prized as an unusually lyrical example of the artist’s late work.

The Impressionist painting depicts the corner of a garden in the asylum of St. Paul de Mausole in St. Remy de Provence, where the troubled artist committed himself.

Bond acquired the landscape in a controversial 1987 Sotheby’s auction house sale for $53.9 million, an auction price that has never been topped.

As a matter of policy, the Getty probably will not reveal the purchase price.

Bond, whose crumbling financial empire is more than $5 billion in debt, has reportedly turned down offers of $50 million to $60 million for the painting, which he acquired in an unusual transaction financed by Sotheby’s.

The firm lent Bond $27 million to buy the painting and accepted the painting as collateral for the loan--a highly leveraged deal similar to the widespread 1980s buyouts of whole corporations. The deal was widely criticized for creating artificial or inflated prices in the international art market.

Criticism increased when it was revealed that Bond had renegotiated his loan with Sotheby’s. Last November, the auction house sold an Edouard Manet painting from Bond’s collection for $14.85 million to help pay off his loan. At the time, Sotheby’s president, Diana D. Brooks, said the sale covered “a significant part” of the debt. But the auction house has consistently refused to disclose how much of the debt remains.

Sotheby’s has defended its practice of lending money to clients for the purchase of artworks at auction. But, responding to criticism, the firm has stopped accepting intended purchases as collateral.

There has been considerable speculation in the art world about the painting’s fate ever since Bond’s financial troubles came to light in 1988.

“Irises” initially hit the front pages on Nov. 11, 1987, when it sold for a record price to an unidentified telephone bidder at Sotheby’s New York. Coming a few weeks after the October, 1987, stock market crash, the astonishing sale reassured a nervous art world that the art market was thriving despite the misfortunes of Wall Street.

The painting was in private European collections until 1947, when New York philanthropist Joan Whitney Payson bought it for $80,000. She bequeathed it to her son, John Whitney Payson, who placed it on long-term loan to Westbrook College in Portland, Me.

After Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” sold for a record $39.9 million on March 31, 1987, Payson decided to sell “Irises” to fund a a charitable foundation.

About a year after the highly publicized sale, the buyer of “Irises” was revealed to be Bond. At the time, he was one of the wealthiest mean in Australia. Bond Corp. Holdings Ltd. owned major assets around the world, including breweries, television stations and minerals. But his empire took a plunge in 1988, and in January he was reported to be more than $5 billion in debt.

Bond initially took possession of the painting and displayed it in his offices in Australia. Sotheby’s later said the painting had been put into storage at an undisclosed place until payment problems were resolved. But the auction house has maintained that Bond is the owner of the painting.

Erroll Considine, media relations director for the Bond Corp. in Perth, Australia, said early today (Australian time) that Bond is the largest shareholder of the publicly traded corporation, but that the entrepreneur’s privately held investment firm, Dallhold Investments Ltd., would be the firm that actually sold the painting in the event that Getty makes the purchase.