SPAIN-GAUGUIN/PAINTING Reina Sofia unveils Gauguin´s "Nafea faa ipoipo"

Record ID: 148524

  • Title: SPAIN-GAUGUIN/PAINTING Reina Sofia unveils Gauguin´s "Nafea faa ipoipo"
  • Date: 3rd July 2015
  • Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (JULY 03, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MADRID´S REINA SOFIA MUSEUM HANGING PAUL GAUGUIN´S "NAFEA FAA IPOIPO" (WHEN WILL YOU MARRY) PAINTING VARIOUS OF DETAILS OF THE PAINTING FORMER OWNER RUEDI STAECHELIN HANDSHAKING THE DIRECTOR OF THE MUSEUM AND WALKING TO PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER OWNER AND SPOKESMAN FOR RUDOLF STAECHELIN FAMILY TRUST RUEDI STAECHE
  • Embargoed: 18th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA36LVN16HT0CJANEV8GNA37QIE
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Madrid´s Reina Sofia museum unveiled on Friday (July 03) Paul Gauguin´s "Nafea faa ipoipo" (When will you marry), reportedly the most expensive art work ever.
    Until September 14th the Reina Sofia museum will show 166 paintings from some of the biggest names in modern art.
    Kandinsky, Picasso, and Van Gogh paintings are part of the exhibition but today all the spotlights were for Gauguin´s art work.
    "Nafea faa ipoipo" was sold among speculation surrounding the price after the Rudolf Staechelin Family Trust agreed to sell.
    Art collector Ruedi Staechelin and spokesman for the Staechelin Family Trust presented the oil painting and wanted to move the conversation to the art rather than the money paid by the unidentified collector.
    "If you go to this museum this is not the most valuable painting in this museum. I think Guernica definitely worth more than this painting. So stop this hype, look at these paintings. It is not the amount of dollars hanging here. There are wonderful paintings here. Look at the, they are all wonderful. They might not have the same market price but this is art, it is not an investment. We had them all close to a hundred years in our family not because we were considering the ups and down of the market. These are family members. Now we separate from our family members and I´m not happy about it but it happens," he said adding that he would not disclose the sell price.
    The painting has been on display in the Kunstmuseum in Basel for almost five years.
    The work features two Tahitian women lying on the floor with white flowers in their hair.
    Former owner Ruedi Staechelin described the painting as happy.
    "It is one of the paintings that Gauguin made when he was first time in Tahiti. It was a happy painting. Only later on he discovered that not everything was so happy in Tahiti. In this painting like not in many it´s only happy elements. Very often he has something threatening, something mysterious but here it is a positive image," he said.
    Media report the painting was sold for almost 300 million dollars but it has not been officially confirmed.
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