Claude Monet's "Le bassin aux nympheas" is displayed during a media preview for a Sotheby's auction of impressionist, modern and contemporary art in New York on May 3, 2021. © Mary Altaffer, AP
A painting of water lilies by French impressionist Claude Monet has sold for $74 million, as part of a lively fall art auction season.
"Le bassin aux nympheas" topped the projected sale price of $65 million when it went under the hammer at Christie's auction house in New York on Thursday night.
Other notable sales included 20th century expressionist painter Richard Diebenkorn's "Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad" which sold for $46 million, while fellow American Joan Mitchell's "Untitled" went for $29 million.
Three paintings by Paul Cezanne were sold, including "Fruits et pot de gingembre" for nearly $39 million.
On Wednesday, Pablo Picasso's "Woman with a Watch," fetched $139.3 million, the second-highest price ever achieved for the artist.
"Femme a la montre," the 1932 painting depicting one of the Spanish artist's companions and muses, French painter Marie-Therese Walter, had been valued at over $120 million before going on the block at Sotheby's.
The fall auction season, which started Tuesday and ends next Wednesday, has so far seen $748 million in sales at Christie's and more than $400 million at Sotheby's.
(AFP)