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Monet Masterpiece Sold For Record $111 million

By RFI
Europe  Orsay
MAY 16, 2019 LISTEN
® Orsay

A canvas from the series known as "Haystacks" by the French painter Claude Monet has been sold at auction in New York for $110.7 million, a record for a work by the artist.

The New York sale, organised by Sotheby's, puts Monet's painting into the top ten of the most expensive artworks ever offered for auction.

No previous work by an Impressionist artist has sold for more than 100 million dollars.

The owner, who has not been named, bought the painting in 1986 for 2.5 million dollars. He has indicted to Sotheby's that some of the profits from the sale will be given to charity.

The canvas, measuring 72cms by 92cms, is one of a series of fieldscapes painted by Monet during the winter of 1890-1891 at his home in Giverny, north-western France.

Another from the series was sold in November 2016 for 81 million dollars.

A Sotheby's spokesman said that contemporary art and Impressionism were both continuing to prove extremely popular with a new generation of collectors, particularly those from Asia.

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