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A Claude Monet painting shattered French auction records on Thursday, selling for €50 million ($56.2 million) at Sotheby’s in Paris. The work, titled Iris, became the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction in France, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of €22 million to €30 million.
Fierce Bidding Battle for Monet’s Iris
Six collectors competed for Iris in a bidding war that lasted 45 minutes. A private buyer in Asia ultimately secured the painting. Sotheby’s deputy chairman Jen Hua represented the buyer by phone during the sale.
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The auction formed part of a larger sale of works from the collection of Jeanne Schlumberger. Her family built its fortune in the oil services industry. Every lot in the sale found a buyer, pushing the evening’s total to €74.4 million ($83.7 million). That figure set a new record for a fine art auction at Sotheby’s Paris. Nearly three-quarters of all lots sold above their high estimates.
Four Monets With a Shared History
Monet dominated the evening beyond just the headline sale. A second painting, Saule pleureur ou L’Arbre de feu, depicting a weeping willow from his garden at Giverny, sold for €9.7 million ($10.9 million). Two further works, 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.
All four Monet paintings share an unusual provenance. Each passed from the artist to his son Michel, before dealer Katia Granoff acquired them. They then entered the Schlumberger collection and remained in private hands for decades.
Jeanne Schlumberger began collecting seriously in the 1950s. She worked closely with Granoff at a time when Monet’s late paintings had not yet achieved their current prestige. In 1958, she appears to have helped finance Granoff’s purchase of works from Michel Monet’s studio. That transaction gave the dealer access to paintings that later became among the artist’s most sought-after.
Cézanne Works Withdrawn for French National Collection
The Schlumberger collection also included three early paintings by Paul Cézanne. However, those works never reached the auction block. Sotheby’s announced Thursday that French authorities had recently designated the paintings as national treasures. As a result, the Schlumberger family withdrew them following discussions with the city of Aix-en-Provence, Cézanne’s hometown.
The city of Aix-en-Provence now plans to acquire the three Cézanne works for the Musée Granet. France’s Ministry of Culture will support the acquisition.
Strong Results Across the Sale
Other works also performed well beyond the Monet highlights. Pierre Bonnard’s La Cueillette des Prunes, unseen publicly since 1956, sold for €2.5 million ($2.9 million). That result exceeded its €800,000 high estimate by more than three times and set a new auction record for Bonnard in France.
A work on paper by Gustave Moreau, titled Rêve d’Orient, achieved €1.4 million ($1.6 million), setting a new auction record for a drawing by the artist. Meanwhile, Camille Claudel’s bronze sculpture La Valse, cast in 1905, sold for €832,000 ($935,000), more than double its low estimate.
Thursday’s sale marked a strong opening to Sotheby’s Paris auction series. Further sales dedicated to modern art and Surrealism follow on Friday. All reported prices include the buyer’s premium.
