Monet sells for a record $80.5M

London -- "Le Bassin Aux Nympheas," a 1919 water landscape painted by Claude Monet, reportedly sold for $80.5 million at a London auction.

The hammer price for the painting was $71.8 million but the cost increased due to taxes and Christie's commission. The winning bidder's identity hasn't been revealed

The BBC said the price was the highest paid for a Monet.

"Le Bassin Aux Nympheas," which had been seen once in public in the last 80 years, had been expected to sell for $47.2 million.

"There's never been such a picture sold at auction in Europe in the last 20 years," Oliver Camu of Christie's told the BBC.

Monet's 1873 work "Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil," which was the previous record holder for highest price paid for a Monet, sold for $41.1 million in May.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.