Sammy Ofer believed buyer of $40.3m van Gogh portrait

[source26]

So after Tel Aviv museum of art didnt want the donation from the Ofer brothers because they demanded that the museum be on their name it seems that they are now buying art from all the world to maybe set up a rival art museum to overtake the current one...
thats what you do when you have too much money with too much ego..


Sammy Ofer believed buyer of $40.3m van Gogh portrait

Christie’s sold van Gogh’s portrait of Madame Ginoux at auction in New York yesterday.
Kim Lev 4 May 06 17:39

Sammy Ofer withdrew his offer to donate millions of dollars to the Tel Aviv Museum, but he is apparently still investing in art. “The New York Times” and the “The Independent” quoted art world sources as speculating that Ofer bought a van Gogh for $40.3 million. Christie’s sold van Gogh’s portrait of Madame Ginoux at auction in New York yesterday. Bidding was between two buyers, one of them by telephone. Before the auction, it was believed that the painting would sell for $40-50 million.
Madame Ginoux, the subject of the painting, owned a cafe in Arles in southern France. Van Gogh frequented the cafe prior to his suicide in 1890. He painted the portrait that year. Paul Gaugin also painted Madame Ginoux, making her one of the best known figures in art history.

Van Gogh portrait was one of 50 paintings Christies put up for auction, of which 43 paintings were sold for a aggregate $180.2 million. This is the highest amount ever made in a Christie’s auction of impressionist and modernist paintings since 1990.

The mysteriousness among the world of art collectors did not end at Christie’s. An unknown man in his 40s yesterday bought a Picasso portrait of his mistress Dora Maar at an auction by Sotheby’s. The unknown buyer paid $95.2 million for “Dora Maar with Cat”, the second highest price ever paid for a painting at an auction.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on May 4, 2006