$80 Million Auction Sale

Recession? What recession? A Monet water-lily painting sold for $80.5 million yesterday, doubling the previous auction record for the artist as London's art-market season got off to a flying start.

"Le Bassin aux Nympheas" from 1919 had been expected to fetch $35 million to $47 million at Christie's.

But after a bidding battle, the 1919 artwork smashed the previous Monet auction record of $41.5 million set in May by "The Railroad Bridge at Argenteuil," which sold at Sotheby's in New York.