New York - A Claude Monet painting fetched 41.48 million dollars at a New York auction, breaking the record for a work by the French Impressionist painter.

An anonymous buyer picked up The Railroad Bridge at Argenteuil Tuesday night at a sale at Christie's auction house, The New York Times reported.

The 1873 landscape depicting a Seine riverbank and two trains sitting on a railway bridge as sailboats pass underneath was sold by the Nahmad family of art dealers, which has galleries in New York and London.

The family bought the painting in 1988 for 12.6 million dollars at a Christie's auction in London.

Before Tuesday, the record price for a Monet painting had been 36.5 million dollars, set last year, for Nympheas, a painting from his water lilies series.

Christie's had predicted the painting would sell for 35 million dollars. The hammer price was 37 dollars, but commissions took the total cost to 41.48 million dollars. (dpa)