$16.8 million buys Monet waterlilies

A painting of waterlilies by French Impressionist Claude Monet from the estate of Hollywood producer Ray Stark was sold for $16.8 million Thursday night at Sotheby’s New York.

The price paled beside the record $104.2 million paid the previous evening for Picasso’s “Boy With a Pipe” but wildly exceeded expectations of the auction house, which had estimated the Monet’s market value at $9 million to $12 million.

The Monet was the star of a $96-million sale with mixed results.

A Picasso nude valued at $3 million to $4 million fetched $11 million, but 10 of the 52 artworks offered went begging. Nonetheless, Sotheby’s reported a two-day take of $314.8 million in Impressionist and Modern art sales, the firm’s highest sales total for a similar group of auctions since May 1990, when the art market peaked.

Suzanne Muchnic