Monet painting fetches $80 million at London auction

by Sanjay Jha | June 25, 2008 at 01:33 am

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Famous painter Claude Monet's water lily painting has set a new world record by fetching more than $80 million. One of his his earlier work was sold for $41.4 million. Monet created his water painting in his water garden in Giverny, France by rerouting a river.

A water lily painting by Claude Monet sold for more than $80 million Tuesday, breaking the auction record for the French impressionist artist, Christie's said. "Le bassin aux nympheas," or "Water Lily Pond," which sold for $80,451,178, was part of a four-work collection of water lily paintings that Monet put up for sale during his lifetime.

The four large-scale paintings of Monet's water lily garden were signed and dated by the artist in 1919. One of the other paintings is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, while another was sold at auction in 1992 for $12.1 million and is in a private collection. The final painting in the series was cut into two before World War II.

"After a thrilling bidding battle between a number of clients in the room and on the telephones, the painting eventually sold to an anonymous collector for 41 million (British pounds), setting a new world record price for the artist at auction," said Olivier Camu, Christie's director of impressionist art.