Tuesday, May 13, 2008
E-mail this story E-mail this story Print this story Print this story E-mail updates Get Newsletters

Monet painting sold for $41 million at NYC auction

Potential bidders attend the Spring 2008 Impressionist and Modern Art auction as Claude Monet's "Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil" is on display at Christie’s Tuesday, May 6, 2008 in New York. The painting sold for $37 million (Euros 23, 791,000) and was last auctioned in 1988 at Christie's for $12.4 million.
AP Photo

last updated: May 06, 2008 07:02:48 PM

NEW YORK —

A Claude Monet painting was auctioned Tuesday for more than $41 million, breaking the auction record for the French Impressionist artist.

"Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil" - a painting of a bridge with two trains passing over the Seine while pleasure boats float below - was sold at a Christie's sale for $41,481,000, said Rik Pike, a spokesman for the auction house.

The previous record for a Monet painting was $36.5 million for his 1904 "Nympheas," which was sold last year.

Christie's said the buyer wanted to remain anonymous.

The auction house didn't identify the seller either, but it reportedly was the Nahmads, a family of art dealers with galleries in New York and London.

The sale price, which included the buyer's premium, exceeded the pre-auction estimate of $35 million to $40 million, Pike said.

Argenteuil was a center for pleasure boating among affluent Parisians and a popular subject for many Impressionist artists. Monet, who rented a house near the cast-iron railway bridge, painted the work in 1873.