Update from Christie's, at a fancy garage sale to end the Gilded Age. Results: Huguette Clark's Monet sells for $24M, and Corcoran Gallery gets $10M of that. The will as written left the painting to the Corcoran, but its lawyers filed objections. Also, two of the Renoir trio sold for $2.1M and $10M. (A third Renoir, the Chrysanthemums, failed to sell, with a high bid of $2.6M.) All the sales were below the estimates. The over-the-top prices predicted in much of the press coverage failed, as they say, to materialize. http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/31/22513322-tour-recluse-huguette-clarks-art-collection-viewing-days-set-at-christies-new-york.
By the way, for those keeping score at home on the Corcoran's take: The Monet sold for $24M. You'll see stories with the figure of $27M, but that's of no matter. Reporters fall for printing the figure including the auction house's commission. But that's irrelevant here, because the agreement says the Corcoran got more money only if the net proceeds were more than $25M, which they were not.
