A magnificent Claude Monet painting has shattered auction records in France, selling for €50 million—equivalent to approximately $56.2 million—during a high-stakes evening sale at Sotheby’s in Paris on Thursday. The monumental transaction not only establishes a new benchmark for the legendary Impressionist master within the country but also marks the most expensive work of art ever sold at a public auction on French soil.
The painting at the center of the historic evening, simply titled Iris, ignited an intense 45-minute bidding contest involving six dedicated collectors from around the globe. The protracted battle ultimately came down to a tense back-and-forth before the piece was successfully secured by a private collector based in Asia. The winning bidder participated via telephone, represented directly by Jen Hua, Sotheby’s deputy chairman. The final price far exceeded pre-sale expectations, obliterating the auction house’s initial estimate, which had projected the artwork to fetch between €22 million and €30 million.
The blockbuster sale of Iris served as the crown jewel in a dedicated auction featuring masterworks from the esteemed collection of Jeanne Schlumberger. The Schlumberger family accumulated their vast fortune primarily through the oil services industry, establishing a legacy of sophisticated industrial enterprise that later translated into an extraordinary eye for fine art. Thursday evening’s auction achieved a rare and remarkable milestone: every single lot offered found a buyer, resulting in a clean sweep that brought the evening’s cumulative total to €74.4 million, or roughly $83.7 million. This grand total represents the highest revenue ever generated by a fine art auction at Sotheby’s Paris. Furthermore, nearly three-quarters of the individual lots surpassed their high pre-sale estimates, demonstrating robust international demand and formidable market confidence.
While the entire catalog performed exceptionally well, Monet’s works were indisputably responsible for the evening’s most dazzling financial fireworks. In addition to the record-breaking Iris, a second major painting by the artist, Saule pleureur ou L’Arbre de feu—a poignant canvas capturing one of the iconic weeping willows that shaded the ponds of his beloved garden at Giverny—commanded an impressive €9.7 million, or about $10.9 million. Two additional canvases by Monet further bolstered the evening’s remarkable totals: La Seine à Vernon, Arbres, painted in 1894, realized €4.3 million (approximately $4.8 million), while La Maison à Travers les Roses brought in €2.5 million, which translates to roughly $2.9 million.
These four exceptional paintings carried a fascinating and deeply interconnected provenance. Following Monet’s death, the works passed directly to his son, Michel Monet. They were subsequently acquired by the prominent art dealer Katia Granoff before eventually finding a permanent home within the prestigious Schlumberger collection. For decades, the paintings remained safely in private hands, shielded from the public eye and away from the speculative pressures of the open market, making their return to the public sphere through Sotheby’s an extraordinary event for art historians and collectors alike.
Jeanne Schlumberger began assembling her formidable art collection in earnest during the 1950s. During this formative era, she worked closely and collaboratively with Katia Granoff at a time when Monet’s late, looser, and more expressionistic works—particularly his water lilies and weeping willows—were not nearly as fashionable or universally revered as they are today. Historical records indicate that in 1958, Schlumberger played a crucial financial role by helping fund Granoff’s direct acquisition of works straight from Michel Monet’s studio. This strategic partnership granted the dealer privileged access to a cache of paintings that would, over the subsequent decades, ascend to become some of the most sought-after and culturally revered creations in the entire canon of Western art.
While the Monet sales dominated the evening’s headlines, the auction was also notable for a high-profile withdrawal involving three early paintings by Paul Cézanne. Initially slated to be part of the Schlumberger collection offering, the trio of Cézanne canvases never made it to the auction block. On Thursday, Sotheby’s officially announced that the works had been withdrawn following intensive, collaborative discussions between the Schlumberger family and municipal authorities in Aix-en-Provence, which was Cézanne’s cherished hometown. The works had recently been designated official French national treasures, a status that paved the way for local intervention. The city of Aix-en-Provence now intends to formally acquire the paintings so they can be permanently housed and displayed at the Musée Granet, with financial and institutional support from the French Ministry of Culture.
Despite the absence of the Cézanne works, there was plenty of dynamic market activity spanning various genres and periods beyond Monet. Pierre Bonnard’s vibrant canvas La Cueillette des Prunes, a masterclass in domestic intimacy and color theory that had not been exhibited publicly since 1956, achieved a stellar €2.5 million ($2.9 million). This figure was more than triple its €800,000 high estimate, simultaneously setting a new auction record for the artist within France.
Sculpture and works on paper also achieved remarkable milestones during the landmark evening. A delicate yet evocative work on paper by Gustave Moreau, titled Rêve d’Orient, brought in €1.4 million, equivalent to roughly $1.6 million, thereby establishing a brand-new auction record for a drawing by the celebrated Symbolist master. Meanwhile, Camille Claudel’s breathtaking bronze cast of La Valse, executed in 1905, captured the imagination of bidders to sell for €832,000—about $935,000—more than doubling its initial low estimate and reflecting a sustained, passionate appreciation for Claudel’s sculptural genius.
The historic evening served as a remarkably strong opening salvo for Sotheby’s series of major sales in Paris. The auction house’s calendar continues on Friday with a dedicated slate of auctions focusing extensively on modern art and Surrealism. All reported sale prices across the evening’s catalog include the applicable buyer’s premium.
