Buyer Pleased to Get Van Gogh at $82.5 Million

The manager of the Japanese gallery that bought Vincent Van Gogh’s 1890 painting “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” at a New York auction for a record $82.5 million said today he got a good deal for his money.

“I figured people would be surprised by the price, but I think it was not really that expensive,” said Kazunori Tanabe, the manager of the Kobayashi Gallery, which purchased the painting Tuesday for a major Japanese company that has not been identified.

The painting, consigned to auction at Christie’s by the estate of Siegfried Kramarsky, a German-born New York banker, was valued at between $40 million and $50 million before the auction.

The sale price of $82.5 million far eclipsed the previous world art auction record of $53.9 million paid in 1987 by the Getty Museum in Malibu for another Van Gogh work, “Irises.”

“Such an exquisite painting rarely appears on the market,” Tanabe said.

Tanabe would not say which company bought the painting or whether the company intends to show it publicly. Japanese companies often display famous works of art at their headquarters.

Japanese companies have purchased many major works of art since the value of the Japanese yen began to rise in 1985, making purchases in other currencies cheaper.

Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Co. Ltd. bought Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in March, 1987, for $38 million and displays it in its head office.

Earlier story on A1.