ART

Wall Street’s wild gyrations or no, Sotheby’s of New York expects the bidding for Vincent van Gogh’s “Irises” to start at $21 million. Currently on view at the auction house’s London branch, the van Gogh work travels to New York this weekend for further viewing until Nov. 11, when the painting goes up for grabs. Sotheby’s chairman John Marion called the painting the “most important work of art to be sold in America.” Two other Van Gogh works--”Sunflowers” ($39.8 million) and “The Bridge at Trinquetaille” ($20.2 million)--sold for the largest and second-largest amounts at auction in history earlier this year.