BRITAIN: A Monet waterlily painting sold for £41 million yesterday, doubling the previous auction record for the artist and ensuring London's key art market season got off to a flying start.
Le Bassin aux Nympheas had been expected to fetch £18-£24 million, but after a bidding battle it smashed the previous Monet auction record of some £20 million set in May.
The result underlines how the art market continues to defy predictions of a correction or even collapse despite global economic gloom caused by falling stocks, rising oil prices and the mortgage meltdown.
Christie's, its main rival Sotheby's and other London auction houses will hold a series of sales of modern and contemporary art over the next 10 days during which more than £500 million of art will go under the hammer.
"The painting sold to an anonymous collector for £41 million... illustrating continued confidence in the art market," said Olivier Camu, head of impressionist and modern art at Christie's in London.
Elsewhere in the evening sale, a pastel picture by Degas sold for £13.5 million, well above its pre-sale estimate of £5 million.
Looking ahead, Christie's holds its main post-war and contemporary art sale on Monday featuring Naked Portrait With Reflection by British artist Lucian Freud, which is expected to fetch £10-£15 million. The 85-year-old artist shattered the world auction record for a living artist in May when Benefits Supervisor Sleeping sold for $33.6 million in New York.
Media reports said the buyer of the Freud was Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, underlining his country's growing importance in the art market.
The owner of Chelsea Football Club was also reported to have bought Francis Bacon's Triptych, 1976 for near £43 million, another auction record, this time for post-war art. - (Reuters)