A painting of the Houses of Parliament by Claude Monet has sold for nearly £11 million at Christie's in New York, making it the most expensive picture of London ever sold. The work, titled Londres, le Parlement, Effet de Soleil dans le Brouillard, depicts Westminster shrouded in fog and was acquired by an anonymous buyer, believed to be a leading global collector.
The sale eclipsed the previous record for a London painting, held by Canaletto's The Old Horseguards, London, from St James's Park, which fetched £9.2 million in 1992. Monet's canvas, measuring 32 by 36 inches, was last sold in 1904 and had been owned by the same Continental family since its purchase from the artist for 20,000 francs.
Monet painted 19 oils of the Houses of Parliament during his stays at the Savoy Hotel around the turn of the 20th century, inspired by London's winter light and fog. Only five of these remain in private hands. The artist, who lived in London during the Franco-Prussian War, once said: 'I love London much more than the English countryside ... above all what I love is the fog.'
The auction coincided with a survey naming Monet's Water Lilies as the painting most people would like to display, followed by Constable's The Hay Wain and Van Gogh's Sunflowers.
