Monet painting fetches US$81mil
A CLAUDE Monet painting, Meule, part of his famous grainstack series, has sold at auction in New York for US$81.4mil (RM355mil) – a record for the French master, Christie’s said.
The previous record was in June 2008. At the time, Bassin Aux Nympheas (Water Lilies) took US$80.4mil (RM350mil) at a sale in London.
The final price, which includes fees and commission, crushed Christie’s pre-sale estimate of US$45mil (RM196mil).
The auction on Wednesday lasted nearly 15 minutes, an unusual length for a sale of this format.
A woman in the room stayed in the running for some time before making a last offer of US$53mil (RM231mil) and leaving it to buyers being handled over the phone.
Muele, which features a sole haystack with a conical top at twilight, is part of a series of grainstacks painted by Monet during the winter of 1890-1891 from his house in Giverny, Normandy.
It is one of the rare works in this series to still be in private hands, Christie’s said.
Most of the others are in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York or the Art Institute of Chicago.
Muele was acquired in 1891 by the Knoedler & Co art gallery, which brought it to the United States.
In recent years, prices for works by Monet or other celebrated Impressionists have shot through the roof. — AFP