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Experts
believe that the ear (shown above left) could provide sufficient
DNA to recreate the troubled genius whose vibrant canvases are now
blue-chip commodities on the international art market.
The ear was found by Sotheby’s
staff while on a routine valuation near
Arles
in the south of
France
. The owner of the ear, M. Etienne-Robert L’Aube,
a local pharmacist, says the ear was recovered from a field by his
grandfather, Ambroise L’Aube,
a farmer who knew Van Gogh, shortly after the artist sliced off his ear in
a psychotic episode in December 1888.
Ambroise later recorded the events in his diary, which was only discovered
by his family in the 1950s. In the journal the farmer relates how he found
the bloodied ear lying in the grass near an abandoned half-eaten baguette
and an empty bottle of absinthe. He brought the ear back to the farmhouse,
placed it in a rubber-sealed glass preserve jar and covered it in ice.
Ambroise died two days later of a stroke, leaving his widow and two sons
unaware of the macabre secret languishing in the attic above their heads.
When the diaries were discovered in the 1950s, the family undertook a
search of the farmhouse but the ear eluded them, having been locked in a
secret drawer of an old secretaire bookcase. Sotheby’s
valuers inadvertently opened the drawer of the bookcase and the jar
containing the remarkably well-preserved ear was revealed.
“It
is quite extraordinary that such a relic should have survived,”
said Selwyn Grammaticus of Sotheby’s
Europe
. “Van
Gogh’s
ear is a kind of Holy Grail, the art historical equivalent of the sacred
prepuce. I would not go so far as to say that the history books will have
to be rewritten, but certainly it will add a new and exciting chapter to
Van Gogh literature.”
The ear’s
vendor, E.R. L’Aube,
added, “C’est
magnifique, c’est
l’oreille
d’un
légende.”
The
ear –
a small, slightly shrivelled object the colour of grilled liver –will
be the star lot in a sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in
New York
in January. The
Van Gogh
Museum
in
Holland
will almost certainly be among those bidding to acquire the holy relic,
but other prospective buyers include Microsoft billionaires Paul Allen and
Bill Gates, the Wellcome Trust research charity and the
Getty
Museum
.
French
auctioneers are furious that the ear has been allowed to leave
France
. “It
is a disgrace,”
said Patrick Soigné, a leading French commissaire-priseur. “Vincent’s
ear is part of the national patrimony, like the Mona Lisa, the Rosetta
Stone, or the cave paintings at
Lascaux
. It belongs in the Louvre or the Musée
d’Orsay.”
“This
is baloney,”
commented Hertz van Rental of the
Stedelijk
Museum
in
Rotterdam
. “Vincent
was born in
Holland
. He is as Dutch as a dope café.
The ear is ours.”
Van
Gogh’s
ear is currently in cold storage at
New York
’s
JFK airport awaiting customs clearance before making the journey to
Manhattan
for the January sale.
Bernadette
Merdalors
Artnose Paris Correspondent
Further reading
For a more er, forensic discussion of Artnose's story,
see pages 202-203 of the recent book Wem Hat Van Gogh Sein Ohr
Geschenkt? by Nora and Stefan Koldehoff (roughly translated as To
Whom Did Van Gogh Give His Ear? Everything Art Does Not Tell You), a discussion - in German - of the popular myths surrounding the
post-Impressionist artist (click on image below for link to Amazon.de).
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