Monet masterpiece Meules from Haystacks series sells at Sotheby’s for £99 million

An ‘undisputed’ masterpiece by Claude Monet has sold for $110.7m (€98.63m) at auction in New York, smashing the world record for the sale of a painting by the renowned French impressionist.

Les Meules, from the painter’s acclaimed Haystacks series, went under the hammer at Sotheby’s on Tuesday night, becoming the first work by Monet to return more than $100m at auction.

The price was some 44 times the figure it raised when last sold at auction in 1986, Sotheby’s said, thanks to an eight-minute bidding war between six interested parties, although the winning bidder’s identity was not revealed.

"The winning bid shatters the previous record for the highest sum ever paid for a work by Monet, signalling the enduring value and popularity of the French impressionist 9master; the bid is also the record for any impressionist work of art," Sotheby’s said.

Described as ‘the most glorious and effusive work’ from the Water Lilies artist’s famed Haystacks series, the evocative Les Meules depicts a row of haystacks casting long shadows in the warm glow of the sun. 

Monet began working on the series in the mid-1880s, although the major masterpieces focusing on the fleeting natures of natural light were created between 1889 and 1891.

Les Meules was acquired directly from Monet’s dealer in the 1890s by wealthy Chicago socialites and avid collectors of impressionist works Potter and Bertha Palmer.

It was among 90 by the French master collected by Mrs Palmer, remaining in her possession until her death in 1918.

After being passed though the Palmer family it was purchased at auction in 1986 by a private collector for $2.53m.