Claude Monet's 'Meules' Painting Sells for Record-Breaking $110.7 Million USD

An oil on canvas painting by Claude Monet sold for a record-breaking $110.7 million USD at a recent Sotheby’s auction. The momentous sale signals the first time an Impressionist work surpassed the $100 million USD mark. Monet made the painting back in 1890 as part of a series called Meules (Haystacks) with the works largely portraying rural scenes from his hometown in Normandy, France. There are a total of 25 paintings in the series, with a majority of the works in the care of international art galleries.

The historic painting was previously auctioned in 1986 where it only snapped up $2.5 million USD. Monet’s Nymphéas en fleur painting (1914-1917) was formerly the most expensive artwork made by the father of Impressionism, having fetched $84.7 million USD at a Christie’s auction in May 2018.

In other auctions, Christie’s New York will launch the sale of Jeff Koon’s iconic Rabbit (1986) sculpture this Wednesday.

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NEWSFLASH: Moments ago in our packed NYC salesroom, Claude Monet’s ‘Meules’ from 1890 — one of art history’s most evocative images – sold for $110.7 million. The result marks a new world auction record for any work by Claude Monet, and the first work of Impressionist art to cross the $100 million threshold at auction. ‘Meules’ is one of only four works from Monet’s acclaimed Haystacks series to come to auction this century, and one of only eight examples remaining in private hands. The other 17 examples reside in distinguished museum collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Musée d’Orsay, Paris and six in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. #SothebysImpMod #ClaudeMonet #Monet #Impressionism

A post shared by Sotheby's (@sothebys) on May 14, 2019 at 4:46pm PDT