Monet to raise £40m

 
Monet's 1906 painting Nympheas was one of many he painted in his water garden at Giverny Photo: PA The painting - dating back a century and from his most famous series of works - will be part of the most valuable art auction yet to take place in the city later this month.

The impressionist and modern art at Christie's sale also features a ''blue period'' Picasso, also tipped to go for up to £40 million, after being withdrawn from sale four years ago.

Weekend checklist: a summary of City stories in the Sunday papersTogether with works by Magritte, Klimt and Van Gogh, the sale on June 23 is expected to raise between £160 million and £230 million.

The art market has seen prices soar in recent months. An equivalent sale at Christie's in New York last month saw the highest price ever paid at auction for an artwork when a Picasso masterpiece went for £70 million.

Monet's 1906 painting Nympheas was one of many he painted in his water garden at Giverny with the pond and lilies depicted in often huge scale.

It is the largest of nine surviving works from that year. He would often destroy with which he was not satisfied.

And it is one of only five which formed part of his famed display of monumental water-lilies at the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris in 1909. A rare study for that exhibition sold for £41 million in London in 2008, a new world record for a Monet.

Nympheas was in the family of one collector for several decades and was bought by the present owner at auction at Christie's New York in May 2000. It is expected to sell for between £30 million and £40 million.

Giovanna Bertazzoni, director and head of impressionist and modern art at Christies, London, said: ''Claude Monet's water-lily paintings are amongst the most recognised and celebrated works of the 20th century, and were hugely influential to many of the following generations of artists.

''It is extremely exciting that with this work, the blue period Picasso, Klimt's portrait of Ria Munk and Van Gogh's 1889 masterpiece, we will be presenting at auction celebrated works from the most formative years of four of the most important and influential artists of the last century.''

The Picasso which is to be sold - Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto - is from the collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber and was dropped from a New York sale at the last moment due to an ownership claim.

The dispute, which dated back to a sale in the 1930s, has now been settled and Christie's said the claimants had ''withdrawn all claims to the painting''.

Sale of the 1903 Picasso will benefit the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, a charity which promotes arts, culture and heritage.

Other prominent works in the sale include (with estimated prices):

:: Frauenbildnis (Portrait of Ria Munk III) - Gustav Klimt (£14 million to £18 million);

:: Parc de l'hopital Saint-Paul - Vincent van Gogh (£8 million to £12 million);

:: Le Baiser - Pablo Picasso (£8 million to £12 million);

:: La Liseuse - Pablo Picasso (£6 million to £9 million);

:: Nu a la chaise longue - Henri Matisse (£5.5 million to £8.5 million);

:: Les barricades mysterieuses - Rene Magritte (£3 million to £4 million). Telegraph