At the same Christie's auction, an Auguste Rodin sculpture fetched $4,842,500, a new record for the artist.

Rodin's Eve set a new record

The previous highest price for a Rodin - best known for his 1880 masterpiece Le Penseur (The Thinker) - was $3,552,500 for his work, Balzac.

The total for the first day of the two-day Christie's sale was $88.2m, with 92% of the lots on offer being sold.

Monet's Nympheas was the top lot at the auction. The pre-sale estimate was $17m to $20m.

The work, from his series of waterlily studies, was painted at his home in Giverny, near Paris, in 1906.

Both the Monet and the Rodin were bought by unidentified European dealers.

Vincent van Gogh's Le pont de Trinquetaille, painted in 1888, fetched $15,402,500, the second-highest price paid at the sale.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Geraniums dans une Bassine de Cuivre sold for $4,842,500, while Camille Pissarro's Polichinelle went for $3,522,500.