Hundreds of people lined up outside a Hong Kong gallery on Tuesday to see a Vincent van Gogh painting that has not been shown to the public for 60 years.

The Dutch artist’s work “Chataigniers en fleurs” (“Chestnut Trees in Blossom”) is on show in Hong Kong before Sotheby’s auctions it in New York on 18 November. The auction house expects the painting to sell for around $180 million.

The work was one of 12 pieces owned by late Argentine collectors Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier and Carlos Pedro Blaquier. Other paintings by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne from the collection will also go under the hammer.

Final months of Van Gogh’s life

The painting shows a chestnut tree in bloom with a single man walking past three women dressed in Japanese clothing. Van Gogh completed it in 1890 during the last two months of his life.

“It’s one of the last, most expressive and hopeful works by Van Gogh in this final phase of his career,” Scott Niichel, a vice chairman at Sotheby’s, told AFP.

The work is one of about 70 pieces Van Gogh created after he left the psychiatric asylum of Saint-Rémy, where he had painted his famous “The Starry Night”.

One painting a day

During his final days, Van Gogh produced work at a rapid rate, completing about one piece a day.

He died at 37, two days after shooting himself in the chest. The artist had struggled with mental health problems throughout his life.

“This manic frenzy of paint application suggests he has so much more to give, and he’s just racing to put it to canvas,” Niichel said, pointing out the thick layers of paint.

The current record for a Van Gogh sale stands at $117.2 million. “Orchard with Cypresses” reached that price at a 2022 auction.

Niichel said “anything is possible” when it comes to who might buy the painting in November.

“Our revealing in Hong Kong suggests that Asia is certainly a possibility,” he said.