Claude Monet Le Palais Contarini (£15-20 million). (Click on image to enlarge).
Monet’s 1908 view of Venice, Le Palais Contarini, sold for £19,682,500 at Sotheby’s in London tonight. This is the highest price ever for a Venetian painting by the artist. The work was completed while Monet and his wife spent three months in Venice. It has been widely exhibited around the world and was in the Turner, Whistler, Monet exhibition at Tate Britain in 2005.
Moments before Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue (1927) sold for £9,266,500. Five bidders competed for the work, which was eventually knocked down to a bidder on the telephone.
The Monet was the top lot in an auction which brought in £105,939,000, just exceeding the high pre-sale estimate of £104 million. Bidders from 33 countries competed on the telephones, in the saleroom and online. The auction was 81.7% sold by lot.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 6 and May 31, 2013).