Water Lilies painting Nympheas by Monet sells for £32m

A 1906 Claude Monet water lilies painting, Nympheas, has sold for £31.7m in London, the second highest price ever paid for the artist at an auction.

Inspired by the lily pond in Monet's garden at Giverny in France, the painting was the top lot at Sotheby's sale of modern and impressionist works.

The dream-like Impressionist painting Nympheas dates back to 1906 and was bought by an anonymous bidder.

Nympheas was the centrepiece of a seminal exhibition in 1909 that unveiled Monet's Water Lily series at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris.

The painting was in the personal collection of French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel throughout his life.

It has since been displayed in the world's top art galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris.

Another painting from the same series, Le Bassin Aux Nympheas (Pool of Water Lilies), still holds the record for a Monet painting sold at auction. It fetched $85.3 million at Christie's in London in 2008.

The series of about 250 oil paintings, which was Monet's main focus during his last 30 years, is seen as the French artist's greatest achievement.

It had a huge impact on the evolution of modern art.

"The Nympheas selling for such a huge sum is again a reflection that this is still a market that is driven by trophies, that the great works by the major masters are still really sought after," said Philip Hook from Sotheby's.