Ryoei Saito
Ryoei Saito (齊藤 了英, Saitō Ryōei, April 17, 1916 – March 30, 1996) was the honorary chairman of
He was noted for his purchase of expensive art. Specifically, at consecutive auctions by
Saito died of a stroke six years after his acquisitions. Three years later, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, after failing to locate the Van Gogh for an exhibition, expressed concern that both paintings may have been cremated with the owner, since Saito had mentioned in the early 1990s, after having to pay $24 million in taxes for them, that it would be better to do so, in order to avoid colossal death duties for his children.[1] Only in 2007 did it became publicly known that the painting had been sold in 1997 or 1998 to the Austrian-born investment fund manager Wolfgang Flöttl.[2]
References
- ^ Usborne, David. "Missing Van Gogh feared cremated with its owner". Independent. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- ^ Lee Rosenbaum, "Dr. Gachet" Sighting: It WAS Flöttl!, ArtsJournal, January 26, 2007
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