With a reported net worth of US$38.1 billion, Dalian Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin could afford to buy a painting worth $20.1 million, which according to the art dealer Sotheby's, Wang did.

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Sotheby's announced May 11 that Wang purchased Monet's Bassin aux nymphéas, les rosiers, during a May 5 New York Impressionist & Modern Art auction.

The painting is believed to be one of the most important examples of Monet's modern works and was material in Monet raising "the tenets of Impressionism to new heights," according to the news release. 

Bassin aux nymphéas, les rosiers, was painted in 1913 and is one of the approximately 250 oil paintings of water lilies by Claude Monet. The painting depicts a pond with clusters of water lilies with a rose arch. It is said that the painting has the largest of rose-covered arches painted by Monet.  

Guo Qingxiang, in charge of Dalian Wanda's art collection, said that the company's purchase of Picasso's Claude et Paloma in 2013 has driven the group to collect original and important art works that represent various eras in art history.    

"We are thrilled to have acquired at Sotheby's New York Monet's Bassin aux nymphéas, les rosiers, which was unseen in the market for more than two decades," Guo added. 

A day after the announcement, it was widely reported in various news outlets that Picasso's Women of Algiers smashed all auction records for a painting with a winning bid of $160 million. The painting was sold in the auction for a total price of $179.3 million, including an over 12 percent commission, BBC News reported. 

Fine Art Fund Group Founder and CEO Philip Hoffman said Monet's painting is an "absolutely blockbuster picture" and one of the "most exciting" pieces that were marketed during the past decade. 

BBC reported that before the announcement, the highest price paid for a painting was $142.2 million for Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud in 2013.

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