NEW YORK (AP) -- An auction of impressionist and post-impres-sionist art brought in $104.5 million, including $20.9 million for a piece from Claude Monet's water lilies series.
The 47-lot Christie's auction included two pieces by Monet and works by two other impressionists, Pierre Renoir and Gustave Caillebotte. All but five items sold."Nympheas," signed by Monet and dated 1906, had been part of a private collection since the early 1900s. The piece featuring the water lily pond behind Monet's cottage in Giverny, just outside Paris, had been expected to sell for between $20 million and $25 million.
Caillebotte's "L'homme au balcon, boulevard Haussmann," showing a man surveying Paris from Caillebotte's balcony, fetched $14.3 million, easily surpassing its $8 million estimate. The sale price was a record for Caillebotte at auction; the old record was $2.1 million.
The artworks were largely from private collections and estates.
Another Monet piece, "Le bassin au nympheas," which features floating flora and reflections dancing on water, fetched $6.8 million, well below its pre-sale estimate of $9 million to $12 million.
The price for Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Berthe Morisot et sa fille, Julie Manet" was $8.8 million, slightly below its pre-sale estimate.
Christie's did not identify Monday's high bidders.