Long-hidden Van Gogh self-portrait to star in major Paris exhibition

Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe, painted in mid-January 1889, will be a centerpiece of Gustave Fayet, Collector-Designer: Icons of Modern Art at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (9 October to 8 March 2027). The painting has been lent periodically to the Kunsthaus Zurich but has not appeared in a temporary exhibition since 1990, after many loan requests were previously rejected. The lenders are described as anonymous heirs of Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos (1909–96), including his eldest son Philip; Niarchos bought the work in the 1970s for a reported $2m–$3m, and its insurance/indemnity valuation for the Paris show is estimated at $200m–$300m. The exhibition reunites key works once owned by French collector and artist Gustave Fayet (1865–1925), and the article notes possible inspiration for Van Gogh’s pipe motif from Gustave Courbet’s self-portrait “L’Homme à la Pipe,” which Van Gogh saw at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier with Paul Gauguin in late 1888.

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