Monet Painting Sells for a Staggering Sum

'Water Lilies brings $43.8 million at auction

Nov 9, 2012, 12:14 pm EDT | By Nate Wooley, InvestorPlace Writer

It’s auction season again, and just like every year, something on the docket sells for a surprising price.

For example, Claude Monet’s Water Lilies sold at Christie’s for $43.8 million dollars on Wednesday. The 1905 painting was sold by the Hackley School and features lilies on a still pool.

Here’s a list of other items Christie’s sold on Wednesday:

Kandinsky’s Study for Improvisation 8, $23 million
Picasso’s Head of a Woman, $13 million
Miro’s Painting (Woman, Newspaper, Dog), $13.7 million

In all, the auction brought in $205 million. That’s lower than the $209.2 million analysts predicted. That’s because 21 of the 69 items went unsold, and several others were purchased with a single bid.