Monet’s Iris Sells for €50 Million in Paris

Claude Monet’s Iris sold for €50 million, including fees, at Sotheby’s in Paris on October 22, setting a nominal record for an artwork sold at auction in France. The price was reported as approximately $56 million. Six prospective buyers competed by telephone for about 42 to 45 minutes before the painting went to an Asian client bidding through Jen Hua, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Asia. The sale exceeded the work’s presale estimate, reported in accounts as either €22 million to €30 million or €20 million to €30 million. Sotheby’s described the result as a French auction record. The Art Newspaper qualified that distinction as applying without inflation adjustment: an inflation-adjusted historical sale of Picasso’s Les Noces de Pierrette was reported to remain higher. The Iris result also remains below Monet’s overall auction record of $110.7 million, set in 2019 for Meules at Sotheby’s in New York. Dated circa 1924-25, Iris is a large painting of flowers in Monet’s water garden at Giverny. It came from the collection of Jeanne Schlumberger, and Sotheby’s specialists said it had not been publicly exhibited. The painting had remained in private hands for decades. The auction was...