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A Claude Monet painting, Le Bassin Aux Nympheas, has fetched a record £40.9m for the artist's work at auction.

The identity of the victorious bidder at Christie's, London, has not been made public. The painting had been expected to fetch £24m.

Painted in 1919 in Giverny in France it has been seen in public just once in the past 80 years.

Monet's 1873 Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil, which sold in May, had held the previous record of £20.9m.

Experts say the art market remains in a "robust" position.

A local developer took the first step yesterday toward building the tallest skyscraper in America when City Councilman Darrell Clarke introduced legislation for zoning changes needed at the 18th and Arch streets location.

Clarke's action came on the same week that Mayor Nutter laid out his goal to restore to the City Planning Commission the power to shape such developments. The councilman and the mayor agree the commission should run the show on the proposed skyscraper, which Walnut Street Capital has named the "American Commerce Center."

Four men, one 29-foot rowboat — and about 3,200 miles to go. A team of rowers from the United Kingdom set out from the Hudson River on Sunday to try to cross the Atlantic Ocean. They hope to end at the Isles of Scilly, a group of small islands off England's southwestern tip.
The boat has an electronic tracking system, and a Web site dedicated to the effort says the rowers had gone 37 miles as of Sunday night. They hope to break a record of 55 days and 13 hours, set by two Norwegian-Americans in 1896.

Kneeling for children and stretching to embrace taller people, a college student believes she’s hugged her way into the record books.

Jordan Pearce, 18, said she hugged 765 people in less than an hour Saturday and plans to send the results to Guinness World Records.

“I feel like I’m on cloud nine,” Pearce said after the last hug Saturday.
The hugs took months of planning. Pearce and her family had to apply to Guinness World Records with detailed plans. The event had to be supervised by two prominent members of the community and covered by the news media.