Elizabeth Taylor's van Gogh fetches $16M at Christie's

LONDON (AFP) - A painting by Vincent van Gogh owned by the late Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor has sold for more than £10 million, Christie's auction house announced on Tuesday.

Van Gogh's "Vue de l'asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Remy" ("View of the Asylum and Chapel of Saint-Remy") went under the hammer for £10.1 million ($16 million, 12 million euros), far exceeding the estimated £7 million price tag.

The painting, completed by the Dutch Impressionist in the year before his death in 1890, was one of the actress's last possessions to be auctioned.

Elizabeth Taylor’s father, the American art dealer Francis Taylor, had purchased the painting on her behalf at auction in 1963 for £92,000 (approx. $142,000. Up until her death in March of 2011, the painting had hung in the living room of Taylor’s home in Bel Air, California.

The British-American star had amassed an extraordinary collection of jewelry and couture as well as art during her glamorous life as a screen star and high-maintenance beauty by the time she died in March aged 79.

A week-long auction of her belongings in New York in December drew total sales of $156.8 million (£99 million, 118 million euros).