Kandinsky painting sets US$23m record

A painting by Wassily Kandinsky sold for US$23 million in New York, setting an auction record for the Russian avant-garde artist.

The oil painting Studie fur improvisation 8 was a highlight of a big evening sale of impressionist and modern works at Christie’s auction house in Manhattan.

The price, within the US$20 million to US$30 million presale estimate, broke the artist’s previous record of US$20.9 million for Fugue, set in 1990.

One of Claude Monet’s water lily paintings sold for US$43.76 million, but a Picasso sculpture of a cockerel was among the prestigious works failing to find buyers.

Monet’s oil on canvas Nympheas was the biggest single seller, hitting the high end of the US$30 million to US$50 million estimate.