LONDON - A rare Monet painting of water lilies fetched $80.4M on Tuesday night at Christie’s. Experts were expecting Le Bassin aux Nymphéas to yield half that. The previous record for a Monet was $41.4M for “The Railroad Bridge at Argenteuil” at Sotheby’s in New York, only last month. The 3×6 feet Le Bassin aux Nymphéas was painted in 1919.

The selling owners were J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller, collectors from Columbus, Indiana.  The winning bid belonged to Tania Buckrell Pos of Arts & Management International, a London company, who purchased the painting for an undisclosed client.

The painting is one in a series of four and is considered one of Monet’s most important from his later years.  In the midst of a global art bubble boom, perhaps buyers were seeking a piece of a sure thing.  One of the series, now in a private collection, sold at Christie’s in 1992 for $12.1 million.

photo: Andy Rain/European Pressphoto Agency