In the context of this artwork, explore the Original version of the Exhibition.
First sold in 1897 by Van Gogh's sister-in-law Johanna van Gogh-Bonger for 300 francs, the painting was subsequently bought by Paul Cassirer (1904), Kessler (1904), and Druet (1910). In 1911, the painting was acquired by the Städel (Städtische Galerie) in Frankfurt, Germany and hung there until 1933, when the painting was put in a hidden room. The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda confiscated the work in 1937 as part of its campaign to rid Germany of so-called degenerate art. Hermann Göring, through his agent Sepp Angerer, sold it to Franz Koenigs in Paris, together with The Quarry of Bibemus by Cézanne and Daubigny's Garden, also by van Gogh. In August 1939, Koenigs transported the paintings from Paris to Knoedler's in New York. Siegfried Kramarsky fled to Lisbon in November 1939 and arrived January 1940 in New York. The paintings ended up in Kramarsky's custody, where the work was often lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Kramarsky's family put the painting up for auction at Christie's New York on May 15, 1990, where it became famous for Ryoei Saito, honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co., paying US$82.5 million for it ($75 million, plus a 10 percent buyer's commission), making it then the world's most expensive painting. Two days later Saito bought Renoir's Bal du moulin de la Galette for nearly as much: $78.1 million at Sotheby's. The 75-year-old Japanese businessman commented that he would have the Van Gogh painting cremated with him after his death. Though he later said he would consider giving the painting to the Japanese government or a museum, no information has been made public about the exact location and ownership of the portrait since his death in 1996. Reports in 2007 said the painting was sold a decade earlier to the Austrian-born investment fund manager Wolfgang Flöttl. Flöttl, in turn, had reportedly been forced by financial reversals to sell the painting to parties as yet unknown. The Städel hired a private investigator to locate the painting, hoping to show it in an exhibition in 2019. It could not be found and instead the original frame still owned by the museum was put on display empty.
Frankfurt Knoedler Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Städel Christie's Siegfried Kramarsky Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Sepp Angerer Ryoei Saito Wolfgang Flöttl Paul Cassirer Renoir Cézanne Franz Koenigs Daubigny's Garden Hermann Göring Sotheby's Bal du moulin de la Galette Paris degenerate art Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Johanna van Gogh-Bonger most expensive painting Metropolitan Museum of Art