Monet’s monumental Iris painting sold yesterday (22 October) at Sotheby’s Paris for €50m (with fees, or $56m), becoming the most expensive work by the Impressionist artist sold in France.
The work far exceeded its €22m to €30m estimate, and elicited a bidding battle lasting nearly 45 minutes between six potential buyers, eventually going to a client on the phone via Jen Hua, the deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Asia.
Iris (1924-25), which has not been shown in public since it was created, also claims the record of the highest price paid for a work of art in France when not accounting for inflation. Taking inflation, and historic currency conversions, into account, this record remains with Picasso’s Les Noces de Pierrette (1989), sold at Drouot auction house in Paris in 1989 for 314.9m French Francs—equivalent to €48m, which adjusted for inflation would today be €104.2m.
The largest of Monet’s celebrated Iris series, the record-breaking work came from the collection of Jeanne Schlumberger, an heir to the Schlumberger oil company. Twenty seven works from her collection were sold at Sotheby’s Paris yesterday, including three further paintings by Monet. All works sold—three-quarters above their high estimate. In total the sale made €74.4m ($83.7m) with fees, well above its pre-sale estimate of €40m (pre-sale estimates calculated without fees).
The overall record for a Monet painting is $110.7m (with fees), set in 2019 at Sotheby’s New York with the sale of Meules (1890).
