English Where Is Dr Gachet

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Where is Dr. Gachet?

During this presentation you may enjoy fragments of "O soave fanciulla” and “Vals della Musetta“ from Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème, instrumental arrangements by Frank Pourcel and his great orchestra.

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Keep enjoying it. This is the famous“Portrait of Dr. Gachet”.It was painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1890 and most of art expert people agree that it is “the best portrait painted in modern art history”.

Who is the current owner? Where is it the painting? Is it maybe a mystery?

Let's read the following brief story to know --or doubt about it.

“In 1897, after van Gogh's death, his sister-in-law sold originally the picture for 300 francs (around US$58) but the roller coaster ride to infamy started in 1990 at Christie's auction house in New York. In less than three minutes “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” became the world's most visible work of art, only to vanish from view –its whereabouts still a mystery.

The bidding started at a respectable US$20 million and the gavel finally came down, making art-world history. An unassuming Tokyo art dealer acquired “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” on behalf of an unknown client, for a total of… US$82.5 million!!!

The masterpiece was shipped to a top-secret storeroom somewhere in the Tokyo area. Gachet's new owner, Japanese industrialist Ryoei Saito, spent a few hours with his purchase, then locked it in a climate-controlled vault. And there it stayed, untouched and unseen, for seven years –a symbol of the once highflying art market and the commoditization of such works.

While the painting rested in its hiding place, Saito struggled, financially and otherwise. In 1993, wheelchair bound and broke, he scandalized the art world by stating that he wanted van Gogh's masterpiece cremated and buried with him upon his death --though he later said he was joking.



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No one was laughing, however, after his death in 1996. It wasn't clear who owned the “Gachet” –Saito's heirs, his company, or his creditors –or even where it was. Museum curators and auction houses tried to locate it.

But while representatives of Saito's company assured the world that it was still around, a veil of secrecy shrouded all future transactions. “Gachet” simply seemed to vanish into the murky waters of the international art market.

Sayonara, Japan. The sad, swirling Dr. Gachet, who wears what van Gogh called "the heartbroken expression of our time“, has almost certainly left Japan for a private collection. But where is it? Some say New York, some France, and some Switzerland.

The “Gachet” is not merely one of the world's most expensive paintings; it is the culmination of the artist's portraiture, says Sjraar van Heugten, head of collections at Amsterdam's van Gogh Museum.

Art-world insiders hope “Gachet” will resurface some time around. ‘Anybody would love to have it in their museum because it's a great work,’ says George Shackelford, chair of Art of Europe at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. For now, however, all there is to contemplate is the money and the mystery.”

Condensed and adapted from © U.S.News & World Report Inc. All rights reserved.www.usnews.com

To conclude.

After reading this story two final key questions are mandatory:

1.Is it true the story we just read? 2.If the story was true, is the painting “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” presently in exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, authentic… or false?

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authentic… or false?

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English Where Is Dr Gachet