A painting by renowned surrealist artist Rene Magritte has shattered auction records, selling for more than $121 million at Christie’s in New York on Tuesday, November 19.
The painting, titled Empire of Light (L’Empire des Lumières), sold for $121,160,000 after a tense nearly 10-minute bidding war, far surpassing its pre-auction estimate of $95 million.This sale achieved a world-record price for both Magritte and for any surrealist artwork at auction, according to Christie’s. The previous record for a Magritte piece was $79 million, set in 2022.The 1954 painting, which portrays a house at night illuminated by a streetlamp under a bright, blue sky, is part of a series by the Belgian artist exploring the interplay between light and shadow. The work was previously owned by Mica Ertegun, an influential interior designer and arts patron, who passed away in late 2023. Ertegun, a former refugee from communist Romania, was married to the late Ahmet Ertegun, the music mogul and founder of Atlantic Records.
The sale of Empire of Light was a major highlight of the autumn auction season in New York, which has seen a slowdown in art sales since last year. Despite this, Christie’s, which is controlled by Artemis, reported sales totaling $2.1 billion in the first half of this year, although this figure represents a decline from the $4.1 billion achieved in 2022.In addition to the Magritte sale, another notable transaction at the same auction was the sale of Ed Ruscha’s 1964 painting Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half, which sold for $68.26 million, setting a new auction record for the American pop artist.
