Christie’s announced that it will offer Claude Monet‘s painting Le bassin aux nymphéas (1917-1919) at its 20th Century evening sale in New York this November. This Giverny gardens is expected to achieve at least US$65 million at Christie’s November sale of 20th-century art in New York.
Le bassin aux nymphéas, or water lily pond, is a monumental canvas extending more than six-and-a-half feet wide and more than three-feet tall, that has been in the same anonymous private collection since 1972. According to Christie’s, the painting has never been seen publicly. A first look at this thickly painted example of Monet’s famed and influential water lily series will be on Oct. 4, when it is revealed in Hong Kong.
Monet’s auction record was last set in May 2019 when Sotheby’s sold the artist’s 1890 landscape Meules (Haystacks) for $110.7 million, more than double the work’s $55 million estimate. At the time, the work was the highest price ever fetched for a work of Impressionism and had previously been sold at Christie’s New York in May 1986 for $2.53 million.
The current work for sale is guaranteed, Christie’s confirmed. The auction house did not provide further details on the seller.