Manet Painting Reaps Record $65M

An 1881 painting by French impressionist Edouard Manet raked in $65.13 million at an auction in New York yesterday—a record for the artist. (Manet's previous auction record is $33 million for a self-portrait sold at Sotheby's in London in 2010.) AFP reports that "Le Printemps" (or "Spring"), which Christie's valued at $25 million to $30 million, was "snapped up by a buyer in the front row who calmly fended off furious bidding on the telephone" to land the masterpiece. It had been in one family's private collection for more than 100 years, the last 20 of which saw it on loan to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. (Other items up for auction? A ghost town in Connecticut.)