Monet's Water Lilies Sells for $74 Million at Christie's New York

Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale in New York on November 9, 2023, achieved over $640.8 million, the highest single-session total since November 2017. The top lot was Claude Monet's 'Le bassin aux nymphéas' (1917-19), which sold for $74 million after being held in the same private collection for 50 years. The auction was the last New York sale for Christie's Global President Jussi Pylkkänen, who will leave the house after a 40-year career following the London session in December. Other notable results included Francis Bacon's 'Figure in Movement' at $52.2 million, Mark Rothko's 'Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange)' at $46.4 million, and Richard Diebenkorn's 'Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad' at $46.4 million, doubling its low estimate. Six new records were set, including for Joan Mitchell ('Untitled' at $29.2 million), Arshile Gorky ('Charred Beloved I' at $23.4 million), Barbara Hepworth ('The Family of Man: Ancestor II' at $11.6 million), Fernando Botero ('The Musicians' at $5.1 million), and Joan Snyder ('The Stripper' at $478,800). Three Cézanne paintings from the Sidney and Jenny Brown collection, held at the Museum Langmatt in Baden, Switzerland, were sold to raise funds for the institution: 'Fruits et pot de gingembre' ($38.9 million), 'Quatre pommes et un couteau' ($10.4 million), and 'La mer à l'Estaque' ($3.2 million). The sale included over 10 lots valued above $20 million, with many works fresh to the market.