Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre

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Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1876
Oil on fabric
131 × 175 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre (commonly known as Le Moulin de la Galette) is an 1876 painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris

Bal au Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre is also a smaller version of Renoir’s Impressionist painting of the same name in a private collection.

[edit] Ownership history

(for smaller version of painting, larger version is in Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

Owned by John Hay Whitney, on May 17, 1990, his widow sold the painting for US$78 million at Sotheby's in New York City, New York to Ryoei Saito, the honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Company, Japan.

At the time of sale, it was one of the top two most expensive artworks ever sold, together with van Gogh's Portrait of Dr Gachet, which was also purchased by Saito. Saito caused international outrage when he suggested in 1991 that he intended to cremate both paintings with him when he died. However, when Saito and his companies ran into severe financial difficulties, bankers who held the painting as collateral for loans arranged a confidential sale through Sotheby's to an undisclosed buyer. Although not known for certain, the painting is believed to be in the hands of a Swiss collector.

The Bal au moulin de la Galette is currently fifth on the list of most expensive paintings ever sold.