Monet Sets a Record at London Auction
By Staff Reporter of the Sun | June 25, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/arts/monet-sets-a-record-at-london-auction/80600/
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ShareA large Claude Monet water-lilies painting from 1919, "Le bassin aux nymphéas," sold for $80.5 million at Christie's robust sale of Impressionist and Modern art in London Tuesday night.
Lefteris Pitarakis/AP
An auction worker poses before Claude Monet's 'Le bassin aux nympheas' (1919) on June 19.
The painting, from Indiana industrialist J. Irwin Miller's private collection, had been estimated between $36 million and $47 million and is one of the largest and last of Monet's water lilies. The sale broke the previous Monet record of $41.4 million, set last month at a Sotheby's auction in New York.
Edgar Degas's "Danseuses à la barre" was another big performer, fetching $26.5 million. The drawing, completed around 1880, was estimated between $7.9 million and $12 million.
The 81-lot sale generated $284.69 million for Christie's.
