A painting from René Magritte’s “L’empire des lumières” series is estimated to sell for more than $95 million at Christie’s New York in November, an amount that would break Magritte’s record at auction
It is “the most important surrealist work ever to appear at auction,” Christie’s said in a news release. will be sold at Christie’s as part of the collection of Mica Ertegun, a Romanian-American interior designer and philanthropist, who died in 2023 at 97 years old.
The painting is one of 27 works from the 1940s to the ’60s that Magritte painted depicting a scene simultaneously during the day and at night. These paintings often fetch significant sums.
“Her generous embrace of other cultures is reflected in the collection’s range, with the Russian and Ukrainian avant-garde hanging side-by-side with Ruscha, Hockney, and Miró,” Max Carter, vice chairman of 20th- and 21st-century art, said in a news release. “But of all the works she lived with, Magritte’s L’empire des lumières most nearly captures her aesthetic philosophy in its balance and restraint. An icon of surrealism, the Ertegun Magritte is arguably the finest, most deftly rendered and hauntingly beautiful of the series. Like Mica’s eye, it is perfect.”
Main Image: L’empire des lumières, 1954, by René Magritte Christie’s Images Ltd. 2024
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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