A rare artwork by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh has finally been sold at auction – after confusion led to the painting being bought twice in the same day. 

It eventually sold for $15.4m at Sotheby's auction house in Paris. 

Van Gogh's Scene de Rue a Montmartre, which had been in the same family for more than 100 years, was going under the hammer for the first time. 

During the auction, an online buyer and two telephone bidders went up against one another to try to secure the rare piece. 

The painting was about to be sold to a telephone buyer for $15.4m and the hammer was falling but a last-second internet bid came in for $16.5m. 

That bid was lodged as the final offer and this time the hammer fell definitively.

READ MORE

Adventurer's lockdown survival tips

Suez canal blockage risks PPE delivery

How to share vaccines more fairly?

 

But minutes after confirming the sale, Sotheby's annulled it due to confusion over whether the final bid arrived in time. 

So the Van Gogh piece went back up for auction and was finally officially sold as the sixth and also the 34th lot of the day.

Scene de Rue a Montmartre depicts a man and woman strolling past a ramshackle fence with a windmill in the background. 

It is part of a series in which Van Gogh produced of scenes in Montmartre, a hilly district in the north of France's capital Paris, which is now dominated by the imposing Sacre-Coeur basilica. 

The artwork has been in the hands of one family since 1920 and has never been on public display. 

It is not yet known if the new owner will maintain the painting in private or if they will loan it to a museum, where it will be able to be seen by the public for the first time. 

Van Gogh arrived in Paris in 1886, where he stayed with his brother Theo, who was working in the French capital. 

In 1888, the artist left the city and moved to the south of France, where he had an infamous argument with fellow artist Paul Gauguin and cut off part of his ear during an episode of mental illness. 

Van Gogh's most famous works are The Starry Night and Sunflowers. 

The artist died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds near Paris in 1890.