ONE OF CLAUDE Monet’s water lily paintings sold for almost €34.4 million at a Christie’s auction in New York city yesterday.
Monet’s oil on canvas ‘Nympheas’ was the biggest single seller at the auction, hitting the high end of the €23-€39 million estimate.
The 1905 painting of mint-green lily pads on top of a periwinkle pool was bought by an anonymous American collector.
A painting by Wassily Kandinsky sold for €18 million, setting an auction record for the Russian avant-garde artist. The oil painting ‘Studie fur improvisation 8’ was a highlight of the big evening sale of impressionist and modern works at Christie’s auction house in Manhattan.
Alberto Giacometti’s ‘La Jambe’, a single skinny bronze leg, sold for€8.8 million, at the low end of the estimate.
Among the night’s losers was the bronze sculpture ‘Coq’ by Picasso, which had a pre-sale estimate of €7.8 – 11.7 million but did not sell.
This is what the Monet that sold for almost €34.4 million looks like:
Would you pay €34.4 million for it?
Additional reporting © AFP, 2012
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