Record £30m price set for Monet’s Venice work

The French Impressionist’s work Le Grand Canal, which dates from 1908, has previously been on show at the National Gallery, but is to be sold from a private collection at Sotheby’s in London on February 3.

It will be part of the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale and has an estimate of £20m to £30m. The previous high for his Venice paintings was in 2013 when the same auction house sold Le Palais Contarini for £19.7m.

Global interest in his work has grown considerably in recent years, with bids in Monet sales coming from almost five times as many countries last year as they did a decade earlier. Le Grand Canal depicts the domes of Santa Maria della Salute which is situated beside Le Grand Canal, and is seen as one of his most celebrated Venice paintings.

Helena Newman, Sotheby’s co-head of impressionist and modern art worldwide, said the market for works by Claude Monet has “now reached an all-time point of strength”.