Monet painting fetches record $110 mn at auction
New York: A painting by French Impressionist artist Claude Monet has fetched a record over $110 million at an auction held here.
The 1890 painting “Meules” from Monet’s “Haystacks” series, is considered to be one of the iconic Impressionist paintings. It was priced by the Sotheby’s auction house experts at some $55 million which was surpassed in a matter of seconds at its Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on Tuesday, reports Efe news.
In the eight-minute long auction which included six bidders, “Meules” reached a hammer price of $97 million and ultimately was sold at $110.7 million, double the estimate, including taxes and commissions.
The $110 million sale is 44 times higher than the previous record at an auction at Christie’s, New York in 1986, and the sale value is the highest ever for any of Monet’s works. The painting is one of the few in the “Haystacks” series that have been put up for auction this century.
Out of the 25 works of art in the series, 17 are now owned by public institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Orsay Museum in Paris and the Art Institute of Chicago, while the rest remain in private hands. (IANS)
Mountaineer scales Everest for 23rd time; creates world record
Kathmandu: A 49-year-old veteran Nepali sherpa has scaled Mount Everest for the 23rd time, breaking his own record in reaching atop the world’s highest peak, media reports said Wednesday.
Kami Rita Sherpa, who summited Everest 22nd time last year to set record of most summits on Mt. Everest, stood on top of the 8,850-metres peak together with other Sherpas on Wednesday morning, the Himalayan Times reported.
Rita has been climbing Mt. Everest since 1994. He couldn’t climb the Everest in 1995 after his client got sick on the way to summit, My Republica, another prominent daily in the Himalayan nation, reported. In 1995, he abandoned the summit bid after the deadliest avalanche killed expedition teams. In 2017, Kami became the 3rd person to climb Mt. Everest for 21 times, equalising the achievement of Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi Sherpa, both of whom have since retired. Kami broke record for set-record of most summits on Mt. Everest in 2018. (PTI)
Floating bar in Caribbean Sea seeks bartender
Kingston: A floating bar in the Caribbean Sea, which is only accessible by a boat, is giving one lucky applicant the chance to “pull pints in one of the most Instagrammable drinking spots in the world”, the media reported.
According to the ad created by UK travel company Virgin Holidays, Floyd’s Pelican Bar’s owner Floyd Forbes has finally decided to take a break after nearly 18 years, and needs someone to fill in for him this summer. Located in Jamaica, visitors can take a boat to reach the establishment from Black River, Treasure Beach or Parottee Point.
It was first built in 2001 after Forbes, a local fisherman, apparently had a dream about opening a bar rising over the ocean, where he could hang out with his friends.
Dubbed one of the coolest watering holes in the world, Floyd’s Pelican Bar is a favourite with locals and travellers. (IANS)
