Hundreds queue in Hong Kong to glimpse Van Gogh painting unseen in public for 60 years

Painted in May 1890, "Châtaigniers en fleurs", or "Chestnut Trees in Blossom", is one ​of the most important works from the Dutch artist's final days in the French ​village of Auvers-sur-Oise, where he died about two months later, aged 37.

The painting ⁠is poised to set a new auction record for a Van Gogh work, said Scott Niichel, ​of Sotheby's modern and contemporary art department in New York. "This is a moment of extraordinary optimism, ​frenetic energy, enthusiasm, passion, and colour in the artist's body of work," he said.

Paintings from Van Gogh's final Auvers-sur-Oise period, just after his release from a psychiatric asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, rarely come to market and the auction will ​draw the attention of collectors, museums and investors.

"I'd never heard of this painting before, so I ​wanted to see it with my own eyes," said Li Shanshan, a 50-year-old art lover who travelled about ‌2-1/2 hours ⁠from the southern city of Shenzhen to view the artwork.

The painting, which depicts a massive blossoming chestnut tree with a flowering canopy that dominates the composition, will be sold among part of a collection of 12 long-unseen works, including items by Paul Cezanne and Claude Monet. Five unveiled at Sotheby's ​in London in late ​September included Cezanne's "Arlequin" and ⁠Monet’s "Le Jardin des Tuileries".

After Van Gogh's death in July 1890, "Châtaigniers en fleurs" was passed to his brother Theo, and then to the latter's widow ​Johanna van Gogh-Bonger and their son Vincent Willem. Subsequently it was owned by ​German publisher ⁠Samuel Fischer, founder of S.

Fischer Verlag, before entering the collection of George "Buddy" De. Sylva, the American songwriter, film producer and co-founder of Capitol Records. In 1953, the painting was acquired by collector Harriet Harris-Jonas, whose holdings ⁠were ​considered significant enough that New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art ​organised visits for patrons to view works in her Fifth Avenue apartment.

The painting was acquired by the Blaquier family from ​art dealer Wildenstein in 1975.