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The work, painted by Van Gogh in 1887 while he
was lodging with his brother Theo in the French capital, will be
put on display by Sotheby's auction house in Amsterdam, Hong
Kong, and Paris, prior to being auctioned off next month.
The auction house put an estimated value on the artwork of
between 5 million euros ($6.08 million)and 8 million euros.
Titled "A street scene in Montmartre," the painting depicts a
man and woman, strolling arm in arm past a ramshackle fence with
a windmill in the background.
The painting is part of a series that Van Gogh produced of
scenes in Montmartre, a hilly district of Paris now dominated by
the Sacre Coeur church.
When the artist was there, the church was under construction and
the area was a patchwork of fields, houses and windmills on the
edge of the city that was starting to attract a bohemian artist
set with its cheap rents.
The auction house said the painting had been seen in catalogues,
but has never itself been on public display. It did not identify
the current owner.
Sotheby's said in a statement that very few paintings from Van
Gogh's Montmartre period remain in private hands. "The
appearance on the market of a work of this calibre, and from
such an iconic series, is undoubtedly a major event," the
statement said.
Van Gogh arrived in Paris in 1886. He left the city in 1888,
saying he had tired of the hectic pace of Paris life.
He moved to the south of France, where he cut off part of his
ear during an episode of mental illness. The artist later shot
himself and died near Paris on July 29, 1890.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Christian Lowe;
Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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