Monet started painting haystacks in the mid-1880s ... Christie’s is also selling a Monet this spring: Moulin de Limetz (1888), which is expected to fetch between $18 million and $25 million.

The target of the environmental activists was Monet's 1872 work Le Printemps (Spring). While the painting was protected by glass, the museum told Le Monde that it would "still undergo a close ...