NEW YORK, May 9 (UPI) -- A watercolor by painter Paul Cezanne, the father of modernism, sold at a New York auction for more than $22.7 million.
"Nature Morte au Melon Vert" exceeded its anticipated price by about $4 million during the sale of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby's, The Telegraph reported Wednesday.
Considered the most important watercolor by Cezanne that was still in a private collection, the painting depicted shades of green in a melon. It was sold on behalf of Giuseppe Eskenazi, an international art dealer who has a gallery in London.
A Sotheby's spokesman called the sale "a record for a work on paper by the artist at auction."
Sotheby's has offered "Nature Morte au Melon Vert" for sale twice before -- once in the 1978 sale of the Robert von Hirsch collection and in the 1989 sale of the British Rail Pension Fund.
