Auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's have won around 300 million pounds for three days this week from sales of impressionists and modern art, which is a European record.

Since the auctions from Tuesday evening till today's afternoon both houses, which together control 90% of global sales of objects of art have sold works to the total value of 297.93 million pounds, 15 million pounds of which will be donated to a charitable organization.

The sales of Christie's for the three days are 168.4 million pounds.

The record was on set up on Tuesday when the auction house offered 81 works of masters such as Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Camille Pissarro and Anri de Tuluz-Lotrek, and ended with sales of 144.44 million pounds.

The highest price of 40.9 million pounds was paid for the picture of Claude Monet "Water lilies". Sotheby's won a total of 129.53 million pounds.