RECORD-BREAKING

Monet ‘Meules’ Painting Sells for Over $110 Million at Sotheby’s Auction

Monet’s “Meules” oil painting is the first Impressionist work of art to break the $100 million barrier at auction worldwide.

An iconic Claude Monet landscape painting sold for a record-setting $110.7 million at a Sotheby’s auction Tuesday night in Manhattan, the Associated Press reports. Monet’s “Meules” oil painting featuring his signature haystacks is the first Impressionist work of art to break the $100 million barrier at auction worldwide, and it’s the most any Monet has earned at auction to date. According to Sotheby’s, the 1890 masterpiece showcases “gigantic conical structures” of wheat or grain stacked in a way so as to prevent the stalks from drying or molding. It is one of four from the artist’s “Haystacks” series to come to auction this century. There are 25 total canvases in the series, Sotheby’s said in the statement, 17 of which are in museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Eight are privately owned.