Monet painting fetches US$74 million at auction in New York

A PAINTING of water lilies by French impressionist Claude Monet has sold for US$74 million, as part of a lively fall art auction season.

Le bassin aux nympheas topped the projected sale price of US$65 million when it went under the hammer at Christie’s auction house in New York on Thursday (Nov 9) night.

Other notable sales included 20th-century expressionist painter Richard Diebenkorn’s Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad which sold for US$46 million, while fellow American Joan Mitchell’s Untitled went for US$29 million.

Three paintings by Paul Cezanne were sold, including Fruits et pot de gingembre for nearly US$39 million.

On Wednesday, Pablo Picasso’s Woman with a Watch, fetched US$139.3 million, the second-highest price ever achieved for the artist.

Femme a la montre, the 1932 painting depicting one of the Spanish artist’s companions and muses, French painter Marie-Therese Walter, had been valued at over US$120 million before going on the block at Sotheby’s.

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The fall auction season, which started on Tuesday and ends next Wednesday, has so far seen US$748 million in sales at Christie’s and more than US$400 million at Sotheby’s. AFP