Photo:Courbis

1990: Renoir Painting Sold at
Sotheby’s for $78.1 Million

In 1990, Ryoei Saito, a Japanese businessman, purchased an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, "Au Moulin de la Galette," for $78.1 million at Sotheby’s in New York City. It was the second most expensive painting ever sold at auction after Vincent Van Gogh’s "Portrait of Dr. Gachet," which Saito bought for $82.5 million at Christie’s the same year. Saito, age 75 when he purchased the Renoir, was the honorary chairman of the Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co., Japan’s second largest paper manufacturer. The painting was previously part of the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney. Renoir was an Impressionist painter who lived in France from 1841 to 1919. "Au Moulin de la Gallette" is a smaller version of Renoir’s Impressionist painting of the same name at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Saito died in 1996 and the painting has since been resold privately by Sotheby’s for $50 million. The painting’s auction is shown here.

–Cynthia Blair