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Monet sells for £13.4m
24/06/2002 21:39 - (SA)
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Nympheas, by Claude Monet, at the Sotheby's auction in London on Monday. (Max Nash, AP)
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London - One of the celebrated series of water lily paintings by French impressionist Claude Monet fetched £13.4 million at auction on Monday.
Nympheas, painted in 1906, had been hidden away in a private French collection since 1940. But it went under the hammer Monday evening at Sotheby's in central London as part of an impressionist and modern art sale.
Experts predicted it would fetch between £10 and 15 million. It was bought by an undisclosed phone bid.
"It is in a pristine state, unvarnished and unlined," said a Sotheby's spokesperson. "To stand in front of it today is to see it in much the same condition as it was when it left Monet's studio."
Monet created the famous water lily pond in his garden at
Giverny, where he moved in 1883, and which inspired much of the
remainder of his work.
The sale also contained works from Pablo Picasso, Vincent van
Gogh, Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne and Edvard Munch.
- Sapa-DPA
- SAPA
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