The new owner of
Montmartre Street Scene (1887) is the Reuben family—the property developers Simon and David Reuben. In an extraordinary auction last week at Sotheby’s in Paris, an internet bidder turned out not to have the money for a Van Gogh.
Although the Reuben brothers are Britain’s joint second-richest UK family, worth £16bn (according to
The Sunday Times Rich List), they are discreet and hardly household names. But their life story shows how self-made people can acquire a Van Gogh to hang above their sofa.
Simon and David were born in Mumbai, India, to Jewish parents of Iraqi descent. They came to England as teenagers in the 1950s, with David going into the scrap metal business and Simon into the carpet trade. The brothers later worked together and in the 1990s they made a fortune in the Russian metal market. The two men are now among the world’s leading property developers. They also have a charitable foundation, which last year gave £80m to the University of Oxford to establish a new college.