California based auction house, Profiles in History, announced today that they will exhibit highlights from their upcoming auction, The Property of a Distinguished American Private Collector. The exhibit will be held at Douglas Elliman’s Madison Avenue Gallery from December 3 through December 9. The exhibit was supposed to be held at Fraunces Tavern Museum, but an alternate location was needed after Hurricane Sandy inflicted a fair amount of damage on the museum.
The Property of a Distinguished American Private Collector includes over 3,000 manuscripts that will be auctioned off at a series of sales beginning on December 18. The first part of the sale will include 300 of the most important letters and manuscripts from the collection and carries an estimate in excess of $8,000,000.
One of the most notable highlights of the exhibition and sale is a four-page handwritten letter by Vincent van Gogh. In the letter written to his close friends, Monsieur and Madame Ginoux, just seven months before his death, van Gogh talks of his failing mental and physical. He writes, “Disease exists to remind us we are not made of wood…” The letter, penned on January 20, 1890, is expected to bring between $200,000 and $300,000.
Other important documents on view include several manuscripts by George Washington, a Thomas Paine manuscript, a rare Emily Dickinson letter, and other correspondences by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Edison.
