A Monet water-lily paining on Tuesday has fetched a record 41 million pounds, twice as much as the previous record for a Monet masterpiece.

“Le Bassin Aux Nympheas” had been expected to bring $36 million to 47 million. Monet’s “Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas” painted in 1919 in Giverny in France has been seen in public just once in 80 years. The painting is from a series of four that experts consider to be the most important paintings from his late period.

The previous Monet auction record of $41,5 million (21 million pounds) was set in May. Then, “Le Pont du Chemin de Fer a Argenteuil” broke the auction record for the French Impressionist artist. The buyer wanted to remain anonymous, Christie’s said.

“There’s never been such a picture sold at auction in Europe in the last 20 years,” Oliver Camu, head of impressionist and modern art at Christie’s said, according to BBC News. The sale “illustrates the continuing strength and confidence of the art market,” he added.  

The Monet painting was part of the evening sale of impressionist and modern art at Christie’s which raised 284 million dollars. Elsewhere in the evening sale, the Edgar Degas pastel of ballet dancers “Danseuse a la Barre” sold with 13.5 million pounds. The drawing had been owned by the New York collectors Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, who donated many works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bloomberg noted.

Other highlights in the sale included works from Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Edgar Degas, BBC News noted.