Letters to Monet will be auctioned

More than 1,000 letters to Claude Monet from his friends and admirers will be auctioned Wednesday in Paris. Many are by Monet’s fellow Impressionist painters -- including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edouard Manet, Paul Cezanne, Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley and Mary Cassatt -- offering an intimate glimpse into a close circle of artists.

Monet carefully preserved the letters until his death in 1926 at age 86. The artist’s great-grandson Michel Cornebois has turned them over to the Artcurial auction house, which expects the sale to bring in $666,000.