“I’ve landed up here in the Midi…to embark on the chimerical pursuit of art.”— Paul Cézanne
And now for something completely different. In this video, Sotheby’s delves into the history of “The Card Players” (1894-95), thought to be Paul Cézanne’s fifth and final treatment of the subject. In a fascinatingly bizarre tale, the painting was one of eight Cézanne’s stolen during a midnight raid on the Pavillon Vendôme museum in 1961. The painting was later recovered after a ransom had been paid.
Another version of the painting was sold to the Royal Family of Qatar in 2011 for a price variously estimated at between $250-$300 million. It is the only one of the five compositions that remains in a private collection.