Claude Monet’s Iris sold for €50 million at Sotheby’s Paris on 22 October, setting a French auction record for any artwork. Six collectors competed for 45 minutes before an Asian private buyer secured it by telephone. The painting led the Jeanne Schlumberger collection sale, which sold every offered lot and raised €74.4 million.
Claude Monet’s Iris sold for €50 million at Sotheby’s Paris on 22 October, setting a record for any artwork auctioned in France.[1], [2]
Six collectors bid for the painting during a 45-minute contest. An Asian private buyer secured it by telephone through Sotheby’s specialist Jen Hua.[1]
Iris belonged to Jeanne Schlumberger’s collection, assembled from the 1950s by a member of the oil-services family. The four Monets in the sale had passed from the artist to his son Michel, then to dealer Katia Granoff and finally to Schlumberger. They remained in private hands for decades. Saule pleureur ou L’Arbre de feu sold for €9.7 million, La Seine à Vernon, Arbres for €4.3 million and La Maison à Travers les Roses for €2.5 million.[1]
Every offered lot found a buyer, bringing the collection’s total to €74.4 million, Sotheby’s Paris’s highest fine-art sale total. Nearly three-quarters exceeded their upper estimates. Pierre Bonnard’s La Cueillette des Prunes, unseen in exhibitions since 1956, brought €2.5 million against an €800,000 upper estimate. Gustave Moreau’s Rêve d’Orient set a record for his drawings at €1.4 million, while Camille Claudel’s 1905 bronze La Valse made €832,000.[1]
