When this Monet maritime sunset below was hammered down for €860,000 (£767,860) – or €1.18m/£1.05m including premium – in Millon’s (25% buyer’s premium) sale of Modern Art on November 26 it not only overturned its €80,000-100,000 estimate but also achieved the second highest result at auction for a pastel by the famous French Impressionist.

Extracted from Antiques Trade Gazette | Anne Crane

The highest price of £1.57m (including premium) was paid earlier this year at Christie’s London rooms for another sunset of landscape format measuring 8½ x 14in (22 x 32cm).

Millon’s pastel, measuring 10in (25cm) square and signed lower right, with a provenance to a private collection, features in the 1991 supplement to Daniel Wildenstein’s mammoth catalogue raisonné.