Water Lilies

A painting of water lilies by French impressionist Claude Monet has sold for $74 million, as part of a lively fall art auction season.

"Le bassin aux nympheas" topped the projected sale price of $65 million when it went under the hammer at Christie's auction house in New York.

Behind some great men, there is a bigger brother. Claude Monet's older sibling is the focus of a landmark Paris exhibit illuminating the hitherto unknown role Leon Monet played in the French impressionist painter's life and art.

A Claude Monet painting from his celebrated "Meules" (Haystacks) series fetched $110.7 million in New York on May 14 in an auction record for the French Impressionist master.

A Vincent Van Gogh painting fetched more than $66 million at a New York auction on May 5, the most paid for a work by the Dutch post-impressionist artist since 1998.

Oil paintings by impressionist master Claude Monet are expected to be stars of the spring auction season in New York, where Sotheby's believes they could fetch as much as $110 million.