Two unseen Monets head to Paris as Iris chases French auction record
Two paintings by Claude Monet that have never been shown in public will go under the hammer in Paris in October.
The lead lot is Iris, a large canvas painted near the end of the French artist's life. It could set a new auction high in France, ARTnews reported.
Sotheby's, the auction house, in Paris will offer the works as part of The Schlumberger Collection: From Monet to Lalanne, Sotheby's titles the sale. A preview in Paris brought together 28 Impressionist works from the same collection, including Iris, ahead of the October auction, Yahoo News reported.
Iris carries an estimate — the low and high figures published before a sale — of €22 million to €30 million (US$25 million to US$34 million). That range alone would clear the current bar for France by some distance.
The existing French auction record for Monet stands at €10.2 million. It was set in Paris by Vétheuil, effet du matin in the Modern & Contemporary Evening Sale. Sotheby's said at the time that the landscape had remained in private hands for 100 years before it was sold.
Expectations around the Schlumberger sale run higher still in some coverage. The Times reported that a work owned by Jeanne Schlumberger to be auctioned at Sotheby's in Paris is expected to fetch more than €40 million. The report did not name the lot in the published details, and Sotheby's has not published a separate figure beyond the €22 million to €30 million estimate reported for Iris.
Sotheby's has presented the Schlumberger holding as a global offering. Material on the collection points to programming in New York in October–December 2025 alongside the Paris sale. The Paris preview focused on the Impressionist section, with the two previously unseen Monets as its centre.
What makes this stand out is the paperwork, not just the pictures. Works that have sat out of sight for decades arrive with fresh provenance, the documented chain of ownership, and long gaps in exhibition history. That is why auction houses stage previews and publish estimates early. Bidders get time to inspect, research and arrange money.
The October sale will test that interest in the room.
