Kim Kardashian Says Her First Auction Buy Was a Monet

Kim Kardashian says the first art she ever bought for herself was a painting by Claude Monet, the French Impressionist painter, and that she bought it at auction. Her account appears in Citizen Kim, an authorized biography written by Jonathan Van Meter. ARTnews reported the purchase, and The Hollywood Reporter published an excerpt from the book.

An auction is a public sale where buyers bid against each other, and the highest bid wins. Kardashian told Van Meter that bidding on the Monet was the first auction she had ever taken part in. She said she got caught up in the moment and went over her budget. The purchase was made while she was in Rome with Kim Jones.

She wanted a gray Monet landscape for her home in Palm Springs, California, a house designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Her choice of painter, she said, came from a film. In the 1995 comedy Clueless, a line describes a girl who looks good from far away but is a mess up close as "a Monet." Kardashian said that line stuck with her.

The film also holds a special place for her. Page Six reported that Clueless is Kardashian's favorite movie.

Van Meter's book is titled Citizen Kim: The Woman Who Created the Future. The New York Times reported that he set out to write it in 2021. Van Meter told The Hollywood Reporter that he spent five years inside the Kardashians' world while working on it.

The Monet story gives readers a close look at how a famous family member first came to art, one bid and one movie quote at a time.