Who’s Afraid of Art Market? : Auction: Not Elizabeth Taylor, who will sell her prized Van Gogh in London despite an uncertain economic climate.

The economy looks so gloomy and the art market has flattened out so much that many prospective sellers of valuable artworks are waiting for a more propitious time to liquidate their treasures.

Not actress Elizabeth Taylor. She has consigned her prized Vincent van Gogh painting, “View of the Asylum and the Chapel at Saint-Remy,” to the auction block. The 1889 landscape is expected to bring between $16 million and $22 million on Dec. 3 at Christie’s London. The actress bought the painting for $257,600 at a London auction in 1963.

If the selling price falls within the auction house’s estimate, Taylor’s painting will be among the most expensive Van Goghs to be sold at auction, but it won’t approach a record. The highest auction price for a Van Gogh--and for any artwork--is $82.5 million, paid last May by Japanese paper manufacturer Ryoei Saito for “Portrait of Dr. Gachet.”

Van Gogh painted “View of the Asylum and the Chapel at Saint-Remy” a few months after he had committed himself to an asylum in Southern France. In a letter to his brother, Theo, the Dutch artist said that the painting celebrates nature with “autumn effects glorious in color, green skies contrasting with foliage in yellows, oranges, greens.”

Executed the year before Van Gogh committed suicide, the painting comes from the most vigorous and highly valued period of the artist’s short career. The fact that “View of the Asylum and the Chapel at Saint-Remy” has been shown in prestigious museums around the world indicates that it is considered a notable example of his work. The Metropolitan Museum of Art included the landscape in the 1986-87 landmark exhibition, “Van Gogh in Saint-Remy and Auvers.”

Taylor bought the painting while she was married to actor Richard Burton. She had begun collecting art in the mid-’50s and had been looking for a Van Gogh for 12 years, according to the auction house. Her father, London art dealer Francis Taylor, reportedly advised the Burtons to go to Paris during the auction and to bid in secrecy to keep the price down.

The Burtons hung the painting in their home in Gstaad, Switzerland, for several years. Later they remodeled their yacht Kalizma (named for Taylor’s and Burton’s children, Kate Burton, Liza Todd and Maria Burton) to accommodate the painting. The yacht, which was docked on the Thames River, was home to the Burtons on their frequent visits to London. They lived on board to circumvent British laws that prevented them from importing their pets.

Taylor kept the painting after her divorce from Burton. In recent years she has displayed it in her home in Bel-Air. The actress declined to explain why she is selling the Van Gogh. An auction house official would only say that the consignment was “a personal decision.”

Although the auction forecast is bleak for the fall season, this is the second multimillion-dollar Van Gogh to be offered. Christie’s New York will test the Van Gogh market on Nov. 14 when a 1890 still life, “Vase With Cornflowers and Poppies,” goes on the block at an estimated price of $12 million to $16 million.

The Van Gogh market has gone wild in the past four years, starting with the sale of “Sunflowers” for $39.9 million to a Japanese insurance company on March 31, 1987. Five and a half months later, on Nov. 11, 1987, “Irises” sold for $53.9 million to Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond. When Bond’s financial empire subsequently tumbled, “Irises” was quietly put up for sale. The J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu bought it earlier this year for an undisclosed sum.

The “Irises” record held until last May, when it was shattered by the astonishing sum of $82.5 million paid for “Portrait of Dr. Gachet.” Among other Van Gogh paintings that have commanded more than $10 million at auction are “Bridge at Trinquetaille” ($20.24 million),”Portrait of Adeline Ravoux” ($13.75 million) and “Romans Parisiens (Les Livres Jaune)” ($12.2 million).