MASTERPIECE?

New York Art Collector Says He’s Found a Lost Van Gogh

If authenticated, the painting would be the largest Van Gogh piece on record. Stuart Pivar is being cagey about where he found it.

New York City art collector Stuart Pivar says he’s found a lost painting by Vincent van Gogh. The picture, titled “Auvers, 1890” and signed “Vincent” on the back, would be the largest van Gogh on record if it turns out to be authentic. Pivar is being cagey about where he found the painting, telling the Page Six only that he obtained it at an “obscure auction in North America” and that the prior owners do not want to be identified. “This is what we are considering to be the greatest art find in 100 years,” said Pivar. “We consider this to be the find of the century.” An email reviewed by Page Six from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam to Pivar, who is also a plastic chemistry scientist, offers to authenticate the picture for him. Pivar described the moment he took the painting out of its crate: “I was lost for words, in absolute shock, to the point I felt electrical waves passing up and down my body.”