Liz Taylor paintings sold for £14 million

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Vincent Van Gogh’s Vue de l’Asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Remy (1889). — AFP

Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor’s legendary collections of jewellery, dresses, and memorabilia may have raised over $156.8 million in December, but her art work is breaking records now.
Three works of art from her collection were auctioned for a combined £13.79 million ($21.79 million) more than doubling their pre-sale low estimate of £6.2 million at an auction in London on Tuesday evening.
An additional 35 works from the filmstar’s fine art collection will be auctioned on Wednesday as part of Christie’s impressionist and modern art sales. The final value of the Liz Taylor auctions will only be known after the sale of the 35 paintings in London.
The Hollywood icon, who died in March this year, was a collector of art and was renowned for huge collection of impressionist art. The London-born actress’ father Francis Taylor was an art dealer.
The 79-year-old filmstar, who was famous for her beauty and equally for her eight marriages, was survived by two sons and two daughters after her death in March last year and the family decided to auction her art along with her personal effects. The family will donate part of the proceeds to The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, which she set up in 1991.
The Tuesday’s sale included Vincent van Gogh’s Vue de l’asile et de la Chappelle de Saint-Rémy, had been purchased by her father on her behalf at auction in 1963 for £92,000. The painting was sold for £10.1 million ($15.99 million).
The landscape, painted in the turquoise and ochre hues of early autumn, is a view of the asylum where Van Gogh spent his last months. The painting used to be on display in Liz Taylor’s living room in Bel Air, California.
Two other sales in the Taylor art catalogue were a youthful self-portrait by Edgar Degas which was sold for £713,250 ($1.12 million) and a large-scale landscape by Camille Pissarro called Pommiers à Éragny that was sold for £2.95 million ($4.66 million).