While Claude Monet's "Iris" was rewriting French auction records on Thursday, the sale's most quietly dramatic moment happened before the bidding even began.

According to Daily Sabah, three paintings by Paul Cézanne had been classified as "national treasures" and were withdrawn from the Sotheby's sale a few hours before the auction started, "with a view to their return to the artist's hometown, Aix-en-Provence."

The auction house said the move followed an agreement between the current owners and the city of Aix-en-Provence, which, with the support of the French culture ministry, is considering acquiring the works.

The withdrawal is a reversal of the night's expected script.

The Cézannes had entered the market as part of the Schlumberger Collection — assembled by Jeanne Schlumberger, whom The Business Times describes as a prominent collector who acquired exceptional pieces including works by Cézanne and Gustave Moreau through her friendship with gallery owner Katia Granoff.

Rather than joining a record-setting auction, the paintings may now head toward public ownership in Provence, where the culture ministry's involvement signals France intends to keep them.

For collectors, the episode shows how "national treasure" designations can reroute top-tier works from the auction block to museums with little warning.

The sale the Cézannes left behind still made history.

Multiple outlets report Monet's "Iris" (1924-25), painted in his final years at Giverny, sold for €50 million ($56 million) including buyer fees, well above its €22-30 million estimate and past the previous French record of €43.2 million set by Modigliani's "Head of a Caryatid" in 2010.

The Express Tribune reports six bidders fought for 45 minutes, then the final two battled another 20 minutes, before an Asian collector on the phone won. The Business Times adds the canvas had never left the Schlumberger mansion and stayed "unvarnished and unlined."

The concrete details from the previews are striking. The Business Times reports the "Schlumberger Iris" is considered a masterpiece from Monet's final years, painted between 1924 and 1925, and had never been exhibited — known only through a black-and-white photograph, per Daily Sabah.

Jeanne Schlumberger always refused to lend it for exhibitions, keeping it at her Left Bank residence, a decision Sotheby's France co-head Thomas Bompard said preserved it in "miraculous" state.

The Business Times also notes it smashed the prior record for a Monet iris — £10.8 million at Christie's London in 2015 — while the overall Monet benchmark stands at $110.7 million for "Meules" in New York in 2019.

The same Thursday saw a parallel Christie's auction in Paris that, as Daily Sabah reports, totaled €41.6 million including buyers' fees across 26 works.

Two Monets led it: "Bord des falaises à Pourville" ("The Edge of the Cliffs at Pourville") brought €12.7 million and "Trois pots de tulipes" ("Three Pots of Tulips") fetched €3.1 million.

A Renoir, "Jeunes filles au bord de la mer" ("Young Girls by the Sea"), took €5.8 million, and Picasso's "Nature morte au gruyère" ("Still Life with Gruyère Cheese") sold for €3 million — a busy night underscoring how strong the Paris market is right now.

The context heightens the stakes: the sale falls in the centenary year of Monet's death on December 5, 1926, marked by two Paris exhibitions, "Monet, Painting Time" and "Stories of Landscapes, from Monet to Hockney."

The Business Times notes Monet's late-period paintings are now among the most sought after, with Schlumberger herself drawn to their contemporary, abstract qualities.

The next development to watch is Aix-en-Provence: whether the city, backed by the culture ministry, completes the acquisition of the three withdrawn Cézannes — a deal that would keep works by Monet's great contemporary out of private hands and return them to his home territory.