Public sale records, not an appraisal

How much is Water Lilies worth?

Water Lilies is not for sale: it is held by the Art Institute of Chicago, so it has no market price. Monet painted about 250 Water Lilies; this one is from 1906. The closest guide is Monet's highest documented sale: $110.7 million for Meules (Haystacks), at Sotheby's New York in 2019. Prints and posters of it usually sell for $5–$250, and hand-painted copies for $100–$800.

Artist: Claude Monet
Date: c. 1906
Medium: Oil on canvas
Held by: Art Institute of Chicago

Monet's record$111MMeules (Haystacks) · 2019

Own a print or copy of Water Lilies?

Most copies of Water Lilies in homes are prints, posters or hand-painted copies. They sell as decorative pieces, not as Monet's work. These are the resale ranges Art Scanner's value estimate starts from.

Poster or unframed print$5–$60

Framed decorative or museum-shop print$40–$250

Large framed archival print$150–$800

Hand-painted copy$100–$800

An oil copy painted by hand, often sold as decor

Resale value in US dollars on a log scale: what copies actually sell for second-hand, not retail.

Dots under a magnifier

A regular grid of tiny coloured dots means a print, however old the frame looks.

Strokes that match the picture

Raised brushstrokes that follow the image mean a hand-painted copy. A few strokes over a flat print are added texture.

Labels on the back

Publisher, framer or gallery labels often say exactly what it is and when it was made.

Step by step: how to tell if a painting is valuable. Or scan it with Art Scanner: it checks original or print from the photo and gives a value range for the object you own.

About the painting

One of roughly 250 paintings Monet made of the water-lily pond in his garden at Giverny during the last three decades of his life. Focusing on the shifting reflections on the water's surface, the series pushed his Impressionism toward near-abstraction and is considered a landmark of modern painting.

More on the artist: the most expensive Monet ever sold, and where the famous ones hang.

Monet next to other famous artists

Each artist's highest documented sale, from the same research. Monet: $110.7 million for Meules (Haystacks), in 2019.

Seurat$149MLes Poseuses, Ensemble · 2022
Cézanne$138MLa Montagne Sainte-Victoire · 2022
Munch$120MThe Scream · 2012
Van Gogh$117MVerger avec cyprès (Orchard with Cypresses) · 2022
Monet$111MMeules (Haystacks) · 2019
Gauguin$106MMaternité II · 2022
Botticelli$92.2MPortrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel · 2021
Renoir$78.1MBal du moulin de la Galette · 1990
Rubens$76.7MMassacre of the Innocents · 2002

Nominal US dollars as reported at the time of sale, buyer's premium included where the source includes it.

Why it has no price

Water Lilies is held by the Art Institute of Chicago. Works in public collections are not sold, so no one can put a market price on them. Sale records of other works by the same artist are the closest guide to what it would fetch.

Scan it, see the price tag

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Art Scanner result for the Mona Lisa with its $100M insured value tag — The Mona Lisa in Art Scanner: insured value $100M, Musée du Louvre, 1962

Questions

How much is Water Lilies worth?

Water Lilies is not for sale: it is held by the Art Institute of Chicago, so it has no market price. Monet painted about 250 Water Lilies; this one is from 1906. The closest guide is Monet's highest documented sale: $110.7 million for Meules (Haystacks), at Sotheby's New York in 2019. Prints and posters of it usually sell for $5–$250, and hand-painted copies for $100–$800.

How much is a print of Water Lilies worth?

Most prints and posters of Water Lilies sell for $5–$250, with framed ones at the top of that range, and hand-painted copies for $100–$800. They are priced as decorative pieces, not as Monet's work.

Is Water Lilies for sale?

No. It is held by the Art Institute of Chicago. Works in public collections are not sold, so they have no market price.

What is Monet's most expensive work?

Meules (Haystacks), which sold for $110.7 million at Sotheby's New York in 2019. Prices are nominal US dollars as reported at the time.

Where is Water Lilies?

Water Lilies (c. 1906, oil on canvas) is held by the Art Institute of Chicago.