PARIS: A Vincent Van Gogh painting of a Paris street scene, held in a private collection for more than a century, was sold for 14 million euros ($16.50 million) at auction on Thursday.

Auction house Sotheby’s had set an estimated value of between 5 million euros and 8 million euros for “A Street Scene in Montmartre”, painted in 1887 while the artist was lodging with his brother Theo in the French capital.

The Sotheby’s team held the auction from Paris with bidding online or by phone from Paris, Hong Kong and New York.

The 14 million euros bid was placed online just as the hammer was coming down to clear a bid at 13.05 million euros.

Van Gogh’s painting, which shows a man and woman strolling arm in arm past a ramshackle fence with a windmill in the background, came from the private collection of a French family.

It is part of a series that Van Gogh produced of scenes in Montmartre, a hilly district of the French capital now dominated by the Sacre Coeur church.

The artist arrived in Paris in 1886. He departed from the city in 1888, saying he was tired of the hectic pace of Paris life.

He moved to the south of France, where he cut off part of his ear during an episode of mental illness. Van Gogh later shot himself and died near Paris on July 29, 1890.