Claude Monet – Le bassin aux nympheas
Monet masterpiece sells for £41 million / $80.5 million – a record price for the artist at auction
Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale took place this evening (24 June 2008) and realised £144,440,500 / $283,970,023 / €182,428,352 – the highest ever total for an art auction held in Europe. The top lot of the auction was Le bassin aux nymphéas, a masterpiece painting by Claude Monet which realised £40,921,250 / $80,451,178 / €51,683,539, a world record price for the artist at auction.
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June 25 2008 – 34 works of art sold for over £1 million (44 for over $1 million), and buyer activity at the auction (by lot) was 62% Europe including United Kingdom, 34% Americas, 3% Asia and 1% other. The auction saw a total of 8 artist records established, including for Claude Monet, Henry Moore and Natalia Goncharova
Olivier Camu, Director and Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s London and Thomas Seydoux, International co-head of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie’s: “This evening’s auction realised the highest total for any art auction ever held in Europe, and illustrates the continuing strength and confidence of the art market. We saw particularly strong bidding for works of the highest quality which were fresh to the market. The leading lot of the auction was ‘Le bassin aux nymphéas’, a masterpiece painting by Claude Monet which witnessed a bidding battle involving many international collectors, before selling to a client in the saleroom for £41 million, a new world record price for the artist at auction. A further highlight was ‘Danseuse a la barre’, an extremely rare early masterpiece in pastel by Edgar Degas, which also drew bidding from a number of international clients and far exceeded its pre-sale estimate, selling for £13.5 million, the second highest price for the artist at auction.”
The top 5 prices of the evening were:
– Le bassin aux nymphéas, a masterpiece painting by Claude Monet which was offered from the Estate of J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller and which realised £40,921,250 / $80,451,178 / €51,683,539, a world record price for the artist at auction.
– Danseuse a la barre, an extremely rare early masterpiece in pastel by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) which realised £13,481,250 / $26,504,138 / €17,026,819 far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of £4,000,000 to £6,000,000.
– Les Fleurs, circa 1912, a rare and powerful work by Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962) which sold for £5,529,250 / $10,870,506 / €6,983,443, a world record price for the artist at auction, and a world record price for a work by a female artist at auction.
– Draped Reclining Woman by Henry Moore (1898-1986) which was also offered from the Estate of J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller and which realised £4,297,250 / $8,448,394 / €5,427,427, a world record price for the artist at auction.
– The Portrait of Yanaihara by Alberto Giacometti (1906-1966) which was painted in 1958 and which sold for £4,297,250 / $8,448,394 / €5,427,427.
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