Focus on this artwork and discuss the Provenance.
The Self-Portrait with Palette was not sold during Manet's lifetime and after his death was held by his widow. Nor were either of the self-portraits sold in the 1884 estate sale. Manet's widow does not appear to have wanted to sell them until 1897, as Antonin Proust in a letter from May 10 of that year stated that neither Jean-Baptiste Faure nor Auguste Pellerin were interested in the paintings.
On 2 February 1899, Suzanne Manet bequeathed the pictures to her sister Martina Leenhoff, probably with the intention of aiding her during financial difficulties. That year, Madame Manet and Proust renewed their efforts to sell the paintings. This time the art dealers Hermann Paechter and Ambroise Vollard expressed interest. Later that year Paechter obtained the paintings at the price of 6,000 Francs for the Self-Portrait with Cap and only 1,000 for Self-Portrait with Palette. In Théodore Duret's 1902 exhibit catalog the picture is listed as the property of Pellerin.
Shortly after, the Self-Portrait with Cap went to the collection of Max Linde in Lübeck. In addition to being an art collector Linde was also an ophthalmologist, with Edvard Munch among his patients. Eventually the Norwegian artist was inspired by the Manet to paint various other full length portraits, including a 1909 portrait of his psychiatrist Daniel Jacobson, which came close to the Manet in style and feeling.In May 1910, the Self-Portrait with Palette appeared in an exhibit at the gallery of Georges Petit in Paris, where it was labeled as on loan from the widow of the Marquis Etienne de Ganay. Just a month later it was shown in an exhibit by the gallery owners Paul Durand-Ruel, Bernheim-Jeune and Paul Cassirer together with all other Manet paintings that had previously been owned by Pellerin. Pellerin had sold his collection to the dealers, with the exception of the Self-Portrait with Palette, which he had sold to Madame de Ganay immediately beforehand. Ganay owned the painting through the 1920s; by 1931 it was in the collection of the Berlin bank president Jakob Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt immigrated to New York City in 1936, taking his collection with him, and died there in 1955. In 1958 the painting was bought by J. Summers for 65,000.Later the collector couple John and Frances L. Loeb from New York acquired the painting for $176,800. At the auction of the Loeb collection on 12 May 1997 the painting was sold for $18.7 million to an anonymous bidder. At that time it was the second highest price ever paid for a work by Manet. Shortly thereafter the new owner was revealed to be the Casino developer Steve Wynn, as he displayed the picture in his hotel in the Hotel Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas. In March 2005, it was privately sold to Steven A. Cohen.  The price is estimated to have been between $35 million to $40 million.On 7 May 2010, it was announced that Cohen had decided to auction the painting at Sotheby's on 22 June 2010. The price was expected to be between $30.1 and $45.2 million. These expectations were not met, however, and the painting sold for £22,441,250 ($29.48 million) to the New York collector Franck Giraud. The price was nevertheless a record for a Manet painting.
Max Linde Suzanne Manet Edvard Munch Paul Cassirer Bernheim-Jeune Georges Petit Jean-Baptiste Faure John and Frances L. Loeb Steven A. Cohen Théodore Duret Antonin Proust Paul Durand-Ruel Auguste Pellerin Sotheby's Jakob Goldschmidt ophthalmologist Ambroise Vollard Steve Wynn Hotel Bellagio Wynn Las Vegas