$35 Million Monet "Waterlilies" to Be Offered by Christie’s

NEW YORK—A Monet waterlily is a rare flower indeed.

The last time one made it to market, in 1992, it realized $12.1 million. But on June 24, Christie’s London brings another onto the block: Le basin aux nymphéas, a large-scale work from a series of four Monet painted from 1919 to 1924. (One canvas from the series is in the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

The estimate — approximately £18 million ($35 million) — reflects its rarity, and the company it’s keeping is nearly as stellar. Christie’s is selling it as part of a trove of 16 other 19th- and 20th-century gems from the collection of J. Irwin and Xenia Miller. The house calls it “the most important and valuable collection of Impressionist and modern art ever offered by Christie’s in Europe” and expects the group to bring £40 million ($80 million).

So where have these works been hiding? In 2004, when J. Irwin Miller died at age 95, the New York Times memorialized him as “the industrialist whose patronage turned Columbus, Indiana, into a showcase for modern architecture.”  As longstanding chairman of the diesel engine manufacturer Cummins, Miller established a company foundation, which subsidized the construction of 30 public buildings in his Midwestern hometown by I.M. Pei, Cesar Pelli and Richard Meier, among other bold-faced talents.

In private, Miller and his wife, who died this past February, were equally discerning, filling their Eero Saarinen–designed home with serious art. Also on the block at Christie’s as part of the Miller collection: Picasso’s 1924 still life, Compotier et guitare (est. £3–4 million; $5.9–7.9 million) and Pissarro’s lively depiction of a Paris street scene, Cours du Havre, Gare Saint Lazare, 1893 (£2–3 million; $3.9–5.9 million).

As if that weren’t enough, six additional pieces from their collection are set to earn more than £2–3 million ($3.9–5.9 million) at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art auctions in London on June 30 and July 1 and at the New York sales of American Folk Art on September 24 and American Paintings on December 4.

Click on the photo gallery at left for a selection of works to be auctioned.