At the end of October, news of high prices for well-known works kept coming. In Paris a painting by Monet, in London a sculpture by Hepworth, each sold for a large sum.
Monet's Iris, the highest price ever at auction in France
On October 22, 2026, at Sotheby's Paris, Iris, painted by Claude Monet around 1924 to 1925, sold for 50 million euros (about 56.2 million dollars). It is the highest price ever reached at an auction held in France. The previous record was 43.2 million euros, for a sculpture by Modigliani sold at Christie's Paris in 2010.
The estimate was 22 to 30 million euros. Six collectors bid against each other for 45 minutes, and the work is reported to have gone to a private collector in Asia.
The painting had been handed down in the Schlumberger collection, and had never been shown to the public. Sotheby's describes it as the largest painting still in private hands from Monet's series of about 20 Iris works.
A Hepworth sculpture, about 8.3 million dollars
The day before, on October 21, at Christie's London, Sculpture with Colour (Eos), a 1946 work by the British sculptor Barbara Hepworth, sold for 6.19 million pounds (about 8.3 million dollars). It was reported as the highest price for a unique work by Hepworth.
Only three colored stone carvings by Hepworth from 1946 are known. This work also appears in a photograph of Hepworth taken that same year by the photographer Lee Miller for Vogue.
Why does value gather around works whose reputation is settled?
What the two works share is that, beyond their own beauty, it is clear when they were made, by whom, with what intention, whose hands they passed through, and where they have been. In the art world, the path a work has traveled is called its provenance.
Over a long time, many people have looked at these works, talked about them, recorded them. That accumulation shapes how a work is valued. You could say that a reputation becoming settled means words plus records gathering, layer by layer, around a work.
In the case of my own work
My own work is still in the middle of that process. That is exactly why, for each painting, I care about leaving in words what I was thinking as I painted it. On the page for each work, I add notes on the time I painted it, along with a short read related to the piece.
Order art begins with listening to the client. The conversation a painting was born from becomes a provenance that belongs to that work alone, something no one else has. The time it spends in the place where it hangs gradually adds to it as well.
Mermaid nao's order art is a one-of-a-kind original painting, born from a conversation with you.
[References]
ARTnews: Monet Painting Sells for $56.2 Million, Setting French Auction Record
Artnet News: Monet's Long-Hidden Iris Blooms to Record $56.2M at Auction
Artsy: $56.2 million Claude Monet Iris painting sets a French auction record at Sotheby's
ARTnews: Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Sells for $8.3 M., Leading Christie's London Auction
Artnet News: Barbara Hepworth Dominates at Christie's $30M British plus Irish Art Evening Sale
Yorkshire Post: Dame Barbara Hepworth sculpture estimated to fetch up to £8m at auction
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