PARIS -- A painting by Vincent van Gogh which was once the most expensive in the world is in private hands in Switzerland or the United States, expert sources said here. They joined with the Metropolitan Museum of New York in dismissing a reported in the Philadelphia enquirer that "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" had been destroyed. Japanese businessman Ryoei Saito bought the portrait for 82.5 million dollars at the height of the art market, as well as "Le Moulin de La Galette," by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, for 78.1 million.

He died in 1996, and rumors about the destruction of the Van Gogh began to fly because he had told friends that both paintings should be burned at his cremation so his heirs could avoid a fortune in inheritance tax. Sources said that the Van Gogh, bought by Sotheby's Auction House for a reported 6.2 million pounds (some 10 million dollars) from Saito's creditors, had been secretly resold to another private collector.

The portrait is of Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, a homeopathic physician who ministered to Van Gogh in the last weeks of his life. The 1890 work is considered the artist's last important portrait subject. Paris's Orsay Museum recalled Tuesday that it had been unable to locate the painting when it staged an exhibition on Gachet earlier this year. The Met, which took over the show, similarly failed to obtain the portrait.

Another painting of the same subject, less well done, does feature in the exhibition. Some critics questioned whether it was really by Van Gogh but French experts came down firmly on the side of its authenticity.