Blaquier Family Says It Has Not Exported or Put Its Argentine Art Collection Up for Sale

The Blaquier family has rejected reports that its important collection of Argentine and Latin American art has been exported or placed on the market. In an official statement sent to LA NACION, the family said none of its members had exported any work from the collection, “much less that they are part of a sale.”

The clarification followed an interview with Marcelo Pacheco, a specialist who worked at the National Museum of Fine Arts, served as chief curator of Malba and co-founded the Espigas Archive. The interview examined the history of Argentine collecting and the fate of major private collections held by local families.

The discussion came after reports last month that works from the Blaquier collection could be offered for $450 million, making it a major attraction for the coming auction season. Artnet reported on Aug. 11 that works by Van Gogh, Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, Degas and Gauguin could appear in a public Sotheby’s auction. The report circulated for weeks without official confirmation or denial from the parties involved.

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With regard to today's Sept. 6, 2026 article in LA NACION, based on an interview with Marcelo Pacheco, in which the interviewee states and the headline says, 'With the sale of the Blaquier collection, the greatest loss will be Argentine art: 2,000 pieces will leave the country,' the Blaquier family clarifies that none of its members has exported any Latin American or Argentine artwork from its collection, much less that any of them are part of a sale.

The collection was assembled by Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier, a major patron of Argentine art and founder of the Friends of the National Museum of Fine Arts. She kept the contents private until her death in 2020. Her former husband, Carlos Pedro Blaquier, died in 2023, and their five children have held the collection since then.

LA NACION previously reported that part of the collection left Argentina in June 2019 for Luxembourg “for safekeeping and exhibition,” following the required customs procedures. Four works were even listed in the Official Gazette in search of a local buyer who could keep the heritage in Argentina. The reported 2019 valuations included two Monet water lilies paintings, priced at $50 million and $42 million, along with a 1906 Maurice de Vlaminck still life valued at $5 million.

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For safekeeping and exhibition