NEW YORK CITY — Top lot of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern art sale on November 16 was Claude Monet’s “Meule,” which posted a world auction record for the artist when it was bid to $81,447,500.

The sale totaled $246,344,500 with sell-through rates of 81percent by lot and 88 percent by value. Another world auction artist record was set for Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) as “Rigide et courbé,” oil and sand on canvas, executed in Paris in December 1935, achieved $23,319,500.

Brooke Lampley, head of Impressionist and Modern art at Christie’s New York, remarked, “There was tremendous excitement for great pictures of every variety, and we proved definitively that the market for Impressionism is as strong as ever. Monet’s masterpiece ‘Meule,’ the culminating work in a series of 25 from 1890-1891 and a direct precursor to the famed ‘Water Lilies’ cycle, attracted highly competitive bidding from five clients. After 14 minutes of volleyed bids, it sold for $81.5 million and broke the record for the artist established by Christie’s in 2008. Kandinsky’s magnificent 1935 ‘Rigid et courbé’ also set a new world auction record for the artist. Our curated selection of Picassos were highly sought after, the top lot of which was the ‘Buste de femme (Dora Maar)’ — $22,647,500. We are pleased to share the buyer was the esteemed Japanese collector Yusaku Maezawa, who offered the following comment, ‘I am honored to be able to live with and enjoy this work by Pablo Picasso the most beloved artist of all artists.’”

The sale attracted registered bidders from 33 countries, with strong bidding from the United States, Europe and Asia. The running total for Twentieth Century Week at Christie’s New York is $584,483,750.

Watch for a complete review of this sale in an upcoming issue.