A Claude Monet painting sold for €50 million ($56.2 million) at Sotheby’s in Paris on Thursday, setting a record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction in France.
The painting, Iris, sparked a 45-minute bidding battle between six collectors before selling to a private buyer in Asia, represented on the phone by Sotheby’s deputy chairman Jen Hua. It had been expected to fetch between €22 million and €30 million.
The sale was part of an auction of works from the collection of Jeanne Schlumberger, whose family made its fortune in the oil services industry. Every lot found a buyer, bringing the evening’s total to €74.4 million ($83.7 million), the highest ever for a fine art auction at Sotheby’s Paris. Nearly three-quarters of the lots sold above their high estimates.
Monet was responsible for most of the evening’s fireworks. A second painting, Saule pleureur ou L’Arbre de feu, depicting one of the weeping willows in his garden at Giverny, sold for €9.7 million ($10.9 million). Two more Monets, La Seine à Vernon, Arbres (1894) and La Maison à Travers les Roses, brought in €4.3 million ($4.8 million) and €2.5 million ($2.9 million), respectively.
The four paintings had an unusual history. All passed from Monet to his son Michel before being acquired by the dealer Katia Granoff and eventually joining the Schlumberger collection. They’d remained in private hands for decades.
Jeanne Schlumberger began collecting seriously in the 1950s, working closely with Granoff at a time when Monet’s late paintings weren’t nearly as fashionable as they are today. In 1958, she appears to have helped finance Granoff’s purchase of works from Michel Monet’s studio, giving the dealer access to paintings that would eventually become some of the artist’s most sought-after.
The collection also included three early paintings by Paul Cézanne, but they never made it to the auction block. Sotheby’s announced Thursday that the works, recently designated French national treasures, had been withdrawn following discussions between the Schlumberger family and the city of Aix-en-Provence, Cézanne’s hometown.
The city now intends to acquire the paintings for the Musée Granet, with support from France’s Ministry of Culture.
There was plenty of action beyond Monet. Pierre Bonnard’s La Cueillette des Prunes, which hadn’t been exhibited since 1956, sold for €2.5 million ($2.9 million), more than three times its €800,000 high estimate and a record for the artist at auction in France.
A work on paper by Gustave Moreau, Rêve d’Orient, brought in €1.4 million ($1.6 million), setting a new auction record for a drawing by the artist. Camille Claudel’s La Valse, a bronze cast from 1905, sold for €832,000 ($935,000), more than double its low estimate.
The auction was a strong start to Sotheby’s Paris sales, which continue Friday with auctions devoted to modern art and Surrealism.
All reported sale prices include buyer’s premium.