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René Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" breaks record/ Sold for $121 million

2024-11-20 08:01:00, Kulturë CNA

René Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" breaks

René Magritte's 1954 painting "L'Empire des Lumières".

A painting by René Magritte depicting a slightly eerily lit streetscape sold for more than $121 million at a Christie's auction in New York yesterday.

This amount broke the record for surrealist art at auction and represents a major victory.

L'empire des lumières, ("Empire of Light") from 1954, is one of 27 paintings in which Magritte explored light by painting a sunlit sky over a dark street scene.

The painting described by the auction house as "Jewel" comes from the estate of the late designer Mica Ertegun.

The artwork depicts a house with a single street lamp in front. The flame from the lamp illuminates the dark trees almost black, while the image is quietly reflected on a pool of water. Above the streetscape, a light blue sky filled with puffy white clouds stretches across the top of the canvas.

The painting has been praised for its unique ability to juxtapose a night landscape with daylight, a surrealist motif that Magritte explored in his landscape paintings for nearly two decades.

The sale price, which beat estimates, marks a bright spot amid a slowdown in global art sales and an art market marred by economic uncertainty.

"When icons appear in the market, they create their own market dynamics," Carter said.

Two other Magritte works were included in the sale: the paintings "La cour d'amour" and "La Mémoire," which sold for $10.53 million and $3.68 million, respectively. Elsewhere, a still life by 87-year-old British artist David Hockney fetched more than $19 million.

A recent sale of 20th- and 21st-century art in Hong Kong saw works by Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh fetch prices above estimates, a sign that buyers are still wary. /CNA