The painting “Le bassin aux nymphDeas,” or “Water Lily Pond,” was sold by Christie’s for £40,921,250, ($78.8m) including buyer’s premium, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold by the auction house in Europe.
It was part of a four-work collection of water lily paintings that Monet put up for sale during his lifetime, all of which are signed and dated by the artist in 1919. He saw the oil paintings of his water garden as a cumulative work in progress, and rarely sold them.
Record prices were also reached for other artists’ work including Edgar Degas’s Danseuse a la barre which went for £13.4m ($26.3m) and Natalia Goncharova’s Les Fleurs that sold for £5.5m (£10.8m).
Click here to read more and to watch a live recording of the auction taking place.
Jun - 25 | 
