LONDON
– The painting, “Self Portrait with a Palette”, was bought for a record
price by
New York dealer Franck Giraud, who was bidding at the Sothebys sale, in
central
London. The Manet was among 51 lots in Sotheby’s sale of Impressionist
and
modern works at the start of a series of auctions in London over the
coming
fortnight.Three lots sold for more than £10 million including the 1878
Manet,
one of only two self-portraits he painted. It shows the artist dressed
as a
Parisian dandy, rather than as a working artist.

It was created at a time when Manet was enjoying unprecedented critical
acclaim.
The previous highest price paid for the French artist was £17.8 million
($26.4
million), for the 1878 street scene “La rue Mosnier aux drapeaux” at
Christie’s
in New York in November 1989.