The art world was stunned when Rudolf Staechelin sold Gauguin’s 1892 “Nafea faaipoipo” last year, almost certainly to Qatar, for a rumoured $300m.
The painting was the jewel in the crown of the Swiss collector’s fabulous art holdings. But the astonishment was not only the eye-watering price, but the fact that no one had ever thought that works owned by Staechelin were for sale.
Eighteen works from the collection had been comfortably ensconced in the Basel Kunstmuseum on long-term loan since the 1950s. But the museum had to close for renovations, and there were reported tensions between it and Staechelin. He withdrew the group of works and sold the Gauguin, saying at the time that the family “got a very good offer, and the market is high”.
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