Claude Monet's "Iris" was sold late on Thursday for €50 million ($56.05 million), becoming the most expensive work of art sold at auction in France, Sotheby's said.
The painting, completed toward the end of Monet's life, attracted frantic bidding with six people battling it out for 45 minutes for the piece, before the final two continued to scrabble for a further 20 minutes.
"Iris" finally went to an Asian collector who bid over the phone.
The painting was one of several works up for auction from the Schlumberger Collection and had been expected to sell between €22 million and €30 million.
The previous French auction record was set in 2010, by Amedeo Modigliani's "Head of a Caryatid," which sold for €43.2 million.