René Magritte Masterpiece Breaks Record With $80 Million Auction Sale

A painting by surrealist master René Magritte has broken records by selling for US$79.8 million at Sotheby’s this week, more than tripling the previous record by the artist.

L’empire des Lumières, painted in 1961, was auctioned during an evening sale in London, with three bidders competing for the masterpiece, which depicts a daylit sky and night-time street simultaneously. 

According to ARTnews, the auction house had expected the work to fetch £45 million ($60 million), with the final bid exceeding it by nearly US$20 million.

Magritte’s previous record at auction was held by Le Principe du Plaisir (1937), which sold for US$26.8 million in 2018.

This time, the work had come from the holdings of Anne-Marie Crowet Gillon, a French baroness who was the daughter of one of Magritte’s foremost patrons, Pierre Crowet.

Melanie Clore, a London art adviser, told The New York Times that judging by the portrait’s composition, scale, and condition, it was “one of the most desirable Magritte paintings to come to auction.”

[via ARTnews and New York Times, cover image via Sotheby’s]