Christie’s has been consigned to sell Claude Monet‘s Pommiers en fleurs (1872) by the Union League Club of Chicago to help fund a $10 million renovation of its building.
The auction house will feature the painting of a French lane with blooming white flowers and bushes at its 20th Century Evening Sale on November 19. The estimate is $7 million to $10 million.
Club member Judge John Barton Payne purchased the painting in 1895 and sold it to the club for $500. By the late 1950s, the value of the 23-inch by 29-inch painting rose to $20,000, and then its estimated worth skyrocketed to $900,000 in 1985. Aside from an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020, the spring scene has been on display on the second floor of the club since its purchase.
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However, the Covid-19 pandemic severely hurt the historic social club, a 501(c)(7) tax exempt organization. After cutting approximately 75 percent of its full-time staff, salary cuts to its management and raising $520,000 in member donations, the Union League Club approved the sale of the Monet painting in December 2020.
While the club is now in a much better financial position, it announced in March that the sale of Pommiers en fleurs and Walter Ufer’s Land of Mañana (1917) were due to a “significant mortgage” and capital for the renovation of its nearly 100-year-old building.
“We believe that now’s the time to raise capital,” board vice president Frank DeVincentis told the Chicago Tribune, which first reported news of the planned sale and the hiring of New York-based Winston Art Group. “Rather than impose on our existing members with a one-time assessment, we believe that raising the funds through the sale of some art is most appropriate.”
DeVincentis also told the Tribune that the value of Pommiers en fleurs is now very likely much higher than the previous offer of $7.2 million from an Australian art dealer. (A judge ruled the club did not have to complete the transaction in March 2021.)
