$17 million for Monet painting
Waterlilies don't come cheap
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A large painting of waterlilies by French artist Claude Monet sold for nearly $17 million Thursday night at Sotheby's, capping a two-day auction of impressionist and modern art that grossed $315 million.
About a third of that total resulted from the $104 million winning bid Wednesday for the Pablo Picasso painting "Boy With a Pipe," which set an all-time auction record.
The Monet, "Le Bassin aux Nymphéas," from 1917-19, is a 6-foot horizontal canvas originally commissioned by the French government. It depicts the gardens at Giverny, outside Paris, where Monet rented a house in the 1880s.
"Monet has this idea of making these calming pictures for the city dwellers that just are these watery environments of colored sensations," said David Norman, Sotheby's co-chairman for impressionist and modern art.
Two prospective buyers dueled through telephone bidders, pushing the price above Sotheby's $12 million high estimate to $16.8 million. The final price reflects a 12 percent seller's commission.
The record price for a Monet painting is $33 million, paid for another waterlily painting in 1998.
The painting sold Thursday belonged to the collection of the late Hollywood producer Ray Stark, and it is more abstract than the better-known waterlily series Monet painted earlier in his career.
"These are the kind of paintings Jackson Pollack and the abstract expressionist painters looked at," Norman said. "It's just an all-over sensation. No part of the picture plane is more important than any other."
Sotheby's two-day total was its highest since May 1990.
Christie's auction house will sell impressionist and modern art next week.
