A Claude Monet painting, Le Bassin Aux Nympheas, has sold for a record $80.5 million dollars (£40.9m) for the artist's work at auction.The painting by the French impressionist artist was sold to an unidentified woman in the front row of the auction room at Christie's, London.
Painted in 1919 in Giverny, France it has been seen in public just once in the past 80 years!!
Monet's 1873 Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil, which sold in May, had held the previous record of $55 million dollars.
Experts say the art market remains in a "robust" position.
BBC arts correspondent David Sillito says that buyers from all over the world attended the sale.
The "hammer price" for the painting was $72 million but the overall price rose to over $80million with taxes.
"There's never been such a picture sold at auction in Europe in the last 20 years," Oliver Camu of Christie's said.
To see an actual description of the painting go here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7465627.stm
To see the actual bidding war go here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7465627.stm
"And I tell myself that whoever says he has finished a painting is terribly arrogant. Finished means complete, perfect, and I am working hard without moving ahead, searching, feeling my way without achieving much..."
Claude Monet
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