AN EAR, believed to be the one severed by artist Vincent Van Gogh in a fit of demented self-mutilation, has been discovered in a glass jar in the attic of a farmhouse in Provence and is to be offered at auction in New York in January. It is expected to realise between $2-3 million.

Experts believe that the ear (shown above left) could provide sufficient DNA to recreate the troubled genius whose vibrant canvases are now blue-chip commodities on the international art market.

The ear was found by Sotheby’s staff while on a routine valuation near Arles in the south of France. The owner of the ear, M. Etienne-Robert L’Aube, a local pharmacist, says the ear was recovered from a field by his grandfather, Ambroise L’Aube, a farmer who knew Van Gogh, shortly after the artist sliced off his ear in a psychotic episode in December 1888.

Ambroise later recorded the events in his diary, which was only discovered by his family in the 1950s. In the journal the farmer relates how he found the bloodied ear lying in the grass near an abandoned half-eaten baguette and an empty bottle of absinthe. He brought the ear back to the farmhouse, placed it in a rubber-sealed glass preserve jar and covered it in ice.

Ambroise died two days later of a stroke, leaving his widow and two sons unaware of the macabre secret languishing in the attic above their heads. When the diaries were discovered in the 1950s, the family undertook a search of the farmhouse but the ear eluded them, having been locked in a secret drawer of an old secretaire bookcase. Sotheby’s valuers inadvertently opened the drawer of the bookcase and the jar containing the remarkably well-preserved ear was revealed.

“It is quite extraordinary that such a relic should have survived,” said Selwyn Grammaticus of Sotheby’s Europe. “Van Gogh’s ear is a kind of Holy Grail, the art historical equivalent of the sacred prepuce. I would not go so far as to say that the history books will have to be rewritten, but certainly it will add a new and exciting chapter to Van Gogh literature.” The ear’s vendor, E.R. L’Aube, added, “C’est magnifique, c’est l’oreille d’un légende.”

The ear — a small, slightly shrivelled object the colour of grilled liver — will be the star lot in a sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York in January. The Van Gogh Museum in Holland will almost certainly be among those bidding to acquire the holy relic, but other prospective buyers include Microsoft billionaires Paul Allen and Bill Gates, the Wellcome Trust research charity and the Getty Museum. Hedge fund manager Steve Cohen may also be in the running given that his collection already contains another multi-million dollar shrivelled relic in a glass jar — Damien Hirst's pickled shark.

French auctioneers are furious that the ear has been allowed to leave France. “It is a disgrace,” said Patrick Soigné, a leading French commissaire-priseur. “Vincent’s ear is part of the national patrimony, like the Mona Lisa, the Rosetta Stone, or the cave paintings at Lascaux. It belongs in the Louvre or the Musée d’Orsay.”

“This is baloney,” commented Hertz van Rental of the Stedelijk Museum in Rotterdam. “Vincent was born in Holland. He is as Dutch as a dope café. The ear is ours.”

Van Gogh’s ear is currently in cold storage at New York ’s JFK airport awaiting customs clearance before making the journey to Manhattan for the January sale.

Bernadette Merdalors
Artnose Paris Correspondent
(with additional reporting by Ruby Wax)

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