Sometimes one art-buying spree can make all the difference to a global marketplace. On Tuesday, an anonymous Asian collector called Sotheby’s to win major paintings by Claude Monet, Marc Chagall, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne—a $70 million trove that galvanized the house’s $269.7 million sale of impressionist and modern art. The winning bidder paid $23.4 million for Monet’s “Ice Floes, Bennecourt,” an 1893 view of an icy river that was once owned by Louisine Havemeyer and was expected to sell for between $18 million and...

Source: Wall Street Journal November 15, 2017 04:18 UTC