Two Monets Leads $46M Schlumberger Collection Heading to Auction in Paris

Sotheby's Paris has announced Le Temps Retrouvé: the Schlumberger Collection, an auction on October 22 of Impressionist works expected to sell for more than $45m, featuring two important late works by Monet, as well as paintings by Cézanne, and Courbet.

The collection's historical importance stems from the efforts of collector Jeanne Schlumberger and gallerist Katia Granoff, who supported Monet later in his career.

The centerpiece is Monet’s painting Iris (1925), completed the year before his death and long known only through black-and-white images. Another Monet, Saule pleureur (Weeping Willow), has never before been publicly exhibited until this week. Both have gone on display in Paris today in a show preceeding the sale.

Thomas Bompard, co-head of modern and contemporary art at Sotheby's France, said: "Jeanne Schlumberger and Katia Granoff recognized the radical brilliance of these works at a time when many still overlooked them."