In just over eight minutes of heated competition between six bidders, Claude Monet's 1891 painting, Meules, which forms part of the artist's Haystacks series, sold at auction for a whopping $110.7 million (Dh406.5m) on Tuesday.
The sale, which took place at Sotheby's in New York, sets a new record for a work by the artist, outdoing the previous benchmark by $26m, and it's the first work of Impressionist art to sell for more than $100m at auction.
The longer you spend buying it, the longer you'll spend enjoying it.
Six bidders, both at the auction and over the phone, battled it out for the masterpiece. The winner has yet to be identified, but we do know the final price ended up being 44 times the price that which it went for when last sold at an auction in 1986.
It was a tense few minutes; at some points it looked like it was all over, but the auctioneer – Harry Dalmeny, who is also chairman of Sotheby's UK – managed to coax more confidence out of the bidders. "The longer you spend buying it, the longer you'll spend enjoying it," he joked.
Watch the full bidding war here:
The painting is one of 25 Monet made between 1890 and 1891 in fields near his home in Giverny, France, and had not been seen on the market since the previous auction in the '80s, when it sold for $2.5m. It's part of his series called Haystacks, in which he played with light and atmosphere to depict different times of the day over various seasons.
Now only seven are left in the hands of private individuals, with the rest part of museum collections across the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.
In total, Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale brought in $350m, as 56 works from some of the greatest artistic masters of the 19th and 20th century went under the hammer.
The sale of Pablo Picasso's Femme au Chien (Woman With Dog) brought with it another tense moment: a bidding war resulted in a final price of $54,936,000, a record high for a 1960s-era Picasso work.
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
The low down
Producers: Uniglobe Entertainment & Vision Films
Director: Namrata Singh Gujral
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Nargis Fakhri, Bo Derek, Candy Clark
Rating: 2/5
Mobile phone packages comparison
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Results
%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3EElite%20men%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E1.%20Amare%20Hailemichael%20Samson%20(ERI)%202%3A07%3A10%0D%3Cbr%3E2.%20Leornard%20Barsoton%20(KEN)%202%3A09%3A37%0D%3Cbr%3E3.%20Ilham%20Ozbilan%20(TUR)%202%3A10%3A16%0D%3Cbr%3E4.%20Gideon%20Chepkonga%20(KEN)%202%3A11%3A17%0D%3Cbr%3E5.%20Isaac%20Timoi%20(KEN)%202%3A11%3A34%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EElite%20women%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E1.%20Brigid%20Kosgei%20(KEN)%202%3A19%3A15%0D%3Cbr%3E2.%20Hawi%20Feysa%20Gejia%20(ETH)%202%3A24%3A03%0D%3Cbr%3E3.%20Sintayehu%20Dessi%20(ETH)%202%3A25%3A36%0D%3Cbr%3E4.%20Aurelia%20Kiptui%20(KEN)%202%3A28%3A59%0D%3Cbr%3E5.%20Emily%20Kipchumba%20(KEN)%202%3A29%3A52%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
if you go
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct to Kolkata from Dh1,504 and Dh1,450 return including taxes, respectively. The flight takes four hours 30 minutes outbound and 5 hours 30 minute returning.
The trains
Numerous trains link Kolkata and Murshidabad but the daily early morning Hazarduari Express (3’ 52”) is the fastest and most convenient; this service also stops in Plassey. The return train departs Murshidabad late afternoon. Though just about feasible as a day trip, staying overnight is recommended.
The hotels
Mursidabad’s hotels are less than modest but Berhampore, 11km south, offers more accommodation and facilities (and the Hazarduari Express also pauses here). Try Hotel The Fame, with an array of rooms from doubles at Rs1,596/Dh90 to a ‘grand presidential suite’ at Rs7,854/Dh443.
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
