[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Iris-in-situ-Damien-Perronnet-Blok-Design-Group-Art-Digital-Studio-Sothebys.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tA Claude Monet painting sold for \u20ac50 million ($56.2 million) at Sotheby\u2019s in Paris on Thursday, setting a record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction in France.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe painting, Iris<\/em>, sparked a 45-minute bidding battle between six collectors before selling to a private buyer in Asia, represented on the phone by Sotheby\u2019s deputy chairman Jen Hua. It had been expected to fetch between \u20ac22 million and \u20ac30 million.<\/p>\n \n\tThe sale was part of an auction of works from the collection of Jeanne Schlumberger, whose family made its fortune in the oil services industry. Every lot found a buyer, bringing the evening\u2019s total to \u20ac74.4 million ($83.7 million), the highest ever for a fine art auction at Sotheby\u2019s Paris. Nearly three-quarters of the lots sold above their high estimates.<\/p>\n \n\tMonet was responsible for most of the evening\u2019s fireworks. A second painting, Saule pleureur ou L\u2019Arbre de feu<\/em>, depicting one of the weeping willows in his garden at Giverny, sold for \u20ac9.7 million ($10.9 million). Two more Monets, La Seine \u00e0 Vernon, Arbres<\/em> (1894) and La Maison \u00e0 Travers les Roses<\/em>, brought in \u20ac4.3 million ($4.8 million) and \u20ac2.5 million ($2.9 million), respectively.<\/p>\n \n\tThe four paintings had an unusual history. All passed from Monet to his son Michel before being acquired by the dealer Katia Granoff and eventually joining the Schlumberger collection. They\u2019d remained in private hands for decades.<\/p>\n \n\tJeanne Schlumberger began collecting seriously in the 1950s, working closely with Granoff at a time when Monet\u2019s late paintings weren\u2019t nearly as fashionable as they are today. In 1958, she appears to have helped finance Granoff\u2019s purchase of works from Michel Monet\u2019s studio, giving the dealer access to paintings that would eventually become some of the artist\u2019s most sought-after.<\/p>\n \n\tThe collection also included three early paintings by Paul C\u00e9zanne, but they never made it to the auction block. Sotheby\u2019s announced Thursday that the works, recently designated French national treasures, had been withdrawn following discussions between the Schlumberger family and the city of Aix-en-Provence, C\u00e9zanne\u2019s hometown.<\/p>\n \n\tThe city now intends to acquire the paintings for the Mus\u00e9e Granet, with support from France\u2019s Ministry of Culture.<\/p>\n \n\tThere was plenty of action beyond Monet. Pierre Bonnard\u2019s La Cueillette des Prunes<\/em>, which hadn\u2019t been exhibited since 1956, sold for \u20ac2.5 million ($2.9 million), more than three times its \u20ac800,000 high estimate and a record for the artist at auction in France.<\/p>\n \n\tA work on paper by Gustave Moreau, R\u00eave d\u2019Orient<\/em>, brought in \u20ac1.4 million ($1.6 million), setting a new auction record for a drawing by the artist. Camille Claudel\u2019s La Valse<\/em>, a bronze cast from 1905, sold for \u20ac832,000 ($935,000), more than double its low estimate.<\/p>\n \n\tThe auction was a strong start to Sotheby\u2019s Paris sales, which continue Friday with auctions devoted to modern art and Surrealism.<\/p>\n All reported sale prices include buyer\u2019s premium.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/market\/claude-monet-iris-french-auction-record-sothebys-paris-1234803611\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Iris-in-situ-Damien-Perronnet-Blok-Design-Group-Art-Digital-Studio-Sothebys.jpg?w=1024″] A Claude Monet painting sold for \u20ac50 million ($56.2 million) at Sotheby\u2019s in Paris on Thursday, setting a record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction in France. The painting, Iris, sparked a 45-minute bidding battle between six collectors before selling to a private buyer in Asia, represented on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2212968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2212968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2212968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2212968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2212968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}