Selling Van Gogh's Sunflowers
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2022
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" was sold at auction at Christie's in London in March 1987 for 39.9 million dollars - then a world record and more than double the previous top price paid for an artwork at auction. The sale made front-page headlines and is now seen as the moment the international art market went through the roof. Uma Doraiswamy talks to Lord Charles Hindlip, then the chairman of Christie's and the man who auctioned the painting.
PHOTO: "Sunflowers" arriving in Japan in 1987 after its sale at Christie's (Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
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| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service |
| 0:39.7 | with me Uma Deo Swami. I'm taking you back 35 years to one of the biggest moments in the history of the art world. |
| 0:48.3 | I've been talking to former auctioneer Lord Charles Hindlepp about selling Vincent van Gogh's masterpiece, Sunflowers. |
| 0:55.2 | There are just a few minutes to go before the sale begins and there are more people |
| 0:59.8 | here than for any Christie's sale ever held. The atmosphere is one of great excitement. |
| 1:06.0 | It's March 1987. At the Christie's auction house in London, an exclusive |
| 1:11.0 | crowd a gathering for what's expected to be one of the biggest |
| 1:14.4 | nights ever for the international art market. The signs are that this painting is |
| 1:19.6 | so sought after by the likes of America's Getty and Metropolitan Museums to name but |
| 1:24.4 | two that all previous records will be broken. |
| 1:27.8 | Christie's Chairman, Lord Charles Hinnlipp, will be in charge of auctioning |
| 1:31.8 | sunflowers. |
| 1:35.0 | Walking into an auction room, you don't want to get up onto the lost room and |
| 1:41.0 | the nights yourself with a sort of fanfare. |
| 1:44.0 | That's just to walk up the aisle and say, |
... |
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