Never-Exhibited Monet Sells for $56 Million at Sotheby's Paris

A Claude Monet painting that had never been publicly exhibited sold for $56 million at Sotheby's in Paris, as part of a sale of works from the Schlumberger family's long-hidden art collection. The painting, Iris, was completed between 1924 and 1925 at Monet's home in Giverny, during the final years of his life, and had been known to scholars only through black-and-white photographs before the sale.

A collection kept out of public view

Sotheby's had estimated Iris would fetch between €22 million and €30 million (roughly $25 million to $34 million), making the final $56 million price a significant surprise that underscores just how rare an undocumented, exhibition-fresh Monet from this period is to the market. The painting was part of a broader sale titled "Le Temps Retrouvé," drawing from a collection of some 28 previously unseen works amassed by the Schlumberger family and kept largely private for decades.

Three other Monet canvases from the same collection were also offered in the Paris sale. Works that have never been exhibited or reproduced in color tend to command outsized premiums at auction, since they give buyers a rare chance to own a piece of a major artist's output that has essentially been invisible to the market and to art historians alike.