Never-exhibited Monet painting sells for US$56 million at Sotheby’s

A NEVER-EXHIBITED work by Claude Monet broke the sale record for one of his iris paintings at Sotheby’s in Paris on Thursday (Oct 22).

The painting, auctioned by the Schlumberger heirs, fetched 50 million euros (US$56 million) including buyer fees, well above Sotheby’s estimated range of 22 million to 30 million euros. It also set a record price for any work of art sold in France.

The auction house said the buyer was a private collector in Asia. 

The previous top price for a Monet Iris was £10.8 million (US$14.4 million), at a 2015 auction in London by Christie’s. 

The Schlumberger Iris is considered a masterpiece from Monet’s final years, painted between 1924 and 1925 at his home in Giverny, near Paris, where he famously produced his water lilies series.

The record price commanded by any Monet is US$110.7 million, when Meules was auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York in 2019.

The Iris sold on Thursday belongs to heirs of Jeanne Schlumberger, the wife of Marcel Schlumberger, one of the two brothers who founded the eponymous firm. The company, which became an oil-services giant that was renamed SLB four years ago, now has a market value of about US$72 billion.

Jeanne Schlumberger, a prominent art collector, became the owner of exceptional pieces including works by Paul Cezanne and Gustave Moreau thanks to her friendship with the gallery owner Katia Granoff.

The sale of Iris came as the art world commemorates the 100th anniversary of Monet’s death with special exhibitions, notably at the Musee de l’Orangerie in Paris that displays his famous water lilies.

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Schlumberger had always refused to lend the Iris painting for exhibitions and held it at her private residence on Paris’ Left Bank.

This decision helped preserve it in a “miraculous” state, with the work untouched, unvarnished and unlined – a rare condition for a painting of this calibre, Thomas Bompard, Sotheby’s France co-head of modern and contemporary art who oversaw the auction, told reporters last month.

Monet’s paintings from this period are now among the most sought after. Bompard explained that Schlumberger was drawn to them by their contemporary and abstract elements rather than the impressionist touches for which Monet is known. BLOOMBERG