Paul Gauguin died in the Marquesas with no will, the colony auctioned his paintings for a few francs, and his widow Mette got about 4,000 francs

Paul Gauguin died at his house, the Maison du Jouir, in Atuona on 8 May 1903, aged 54. On 27 March a local magistrate had fined him 500 francs and sentenced him to three months in prison for libelling a gendarme, and his appeal was pending. He was buried in the Catholic Calvary Cemetery the next afternoon. He left no will, and the colonial administration sold his property. Household goods were auctioned in Atuona on 20 July. Paintings, letters and manuscripts went to the ship Durance and were auctioned in Papeete on 2 September 1903. Some items in the inventory were burned as pornography. Victor Segalen, a navy doctor who arrived after the death, bought seven of the ten paintings and four of the five carved panels from the house. Maternité II sold to Commandant Cochin for 150 francs; it sold at Sotheby's in 2004 for $39,208,000. Mette Gauguin, his Danish wife, who had broken with him in 1894, received the proceeds, about 4,000 francs. A self-portrait drawing Segalen bought at the Papeete sale stayed in his family until the Musée d'Orsay bought it at Drouot on 12 June 1992. A bronze of his figure Oviri was placed on his grave in 1973, as he had asked.