'Meules' by Monet Fetches $110.7 Million at Auction

FILE PHOTO: The painting by Claude Monet, part of the Haystacks "Les Meules" series is displayed at Sotheby's during a press preview of their upcoming impressionist and modern art sale in New York, US, May 3, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
FILE PHOTO: The painting by Claude Monet, part of the Haystacks "Les Meules" series is displayed at Sotheby's during a press preview of their upcoming impressionist and modern art sale in New York, US, May 3, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
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'Meules' by Monet Fetches $110.7 Million at Auction

FILE PHOTO: The painting by Claude Monet, part of the Haystacks "Les Meules" series is displayed at Sotheby's during a press preview of their upcoming impressionist and modern art sale in New York, US, May 3, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
FILE PHOTO: The painting by Claude Monet, part of the Haystacks "Les Meules" series is displayed at Sotheby's during a press preview of their upcoming impressionist and modern art sale in New York, US, May 3, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Claude Monet's "Meules" (Haystacks) fetched $110.7 million at auction in New York. The French Impressionist master completed the painting in 1890.

"Meules" was sold at Sotheby's Auction in New York for $110 million, the highest price fetched by a Monet impressionist painting since "Le Bassin aux Nymphéas" sold for $80.4 million in 2008.

The oil-on-canvas masterpiece depicts "gigantic conical structures," composed of wheat or grain drawn in blue, rose, yellow, and red.

Perhaps the most revered painting from Monet's "Haystacks" series, "Meules" is leading a private collection of impressionist paintings, according to Sotheby's.



Belgian Teens Arrested with 5,000 Smuggled Ants as Kenya Warns of Changing Trafficking Trends 

Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx look on during the hearing of their case after they pleaded guilty to illegal possession and trafficking of garden ants, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Law Courts, in Nairobi, Kenya April 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx look on during the hearing of their case after they pleaded guilty to illegal possession and trafficking of garden ants, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Law Courts, in Nairobi, Kenya April 15, 2025. (Reuters)
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Belgian Teens Arrested with 5,000 Smuggled Ants as Kenya Warns of Changing Trafficking Trends 

Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx look on during the hearing of their case after they pleaded guilty to illegal possession and trafficking of garden ants, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Law Courts, in Nairobi, Kenya April 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx look on during the hearing of their case after they pleaded guilty to illegal possession and trafficking of garden ants, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Law Courts, in Nairobi, Kenya April 15, 2025. (Reuters)

Two Belgian teenagers were charged Tuesday with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser known species.

Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal.

In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis Ng’ang’a and Vietnamese Duh Hung Nguyen also were charged with illegal trafficking in the same courtroom, following their arrest while in possession of 400 ants.

The Kenya Wildlife Service said the four men were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa.

The illegal export of the ants "not only undermines Kenya’s sovereign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecological and economic benefits," KWS said in a statement.

Kenya has in the past fought against the trafficking of body parts of larger species of wild animals such as elephants, rhinos and pangolins among others. But the cases against the four men represent "a shift in trafficking trends — from iconic large mammals to lesser-known yet ecologically critical species," KWS said.

The two Belgians were arrested in Kenya’s Nakuru county, which is home to various national parks. The 5,000 ants were found in a guest house where they were staying, and were packed in 2,244 test tubes that had been filled with cotton wool to enable the ants to survive for months.

The other two men were arrested in Nairobi where they were found to have 400 ants in their apartments.

Kenyan authorities valued the ants at 1 million shillings ($7,700). The prices for ants can vary greatly according to the species and the market.

Philip Muruthi, a vice president for conservation at the Africa Wildlife Foundation in Nairobi, said ants play the role of enriching soils, enabling germination and providing food for species such as birds.

"The thing is, when you see a healthy forest, like Ngong forest, you don’t think about what is making it healthy. It is the relationships all the way from the bacteria to the ants to the bigger things," he said.

Muruthi warned of the risk of trafficking species and exporting diseases to the agricultural industry of the destination countries.

"Even if there is trade, it should be regulated and nobody should be taking our resources just like that," he said.