The paradoxical painting of Rene Magritte “L’Empire des Lumieres” (“The Empire of Lights”) sold for a hammer price of £51.5 million on Wednesday, setting a new record for auction price for the Belgian surrealist artist. Additional fees left the final sale price at £59,422 million.
Depicting a night street under a bright blue sky, 1961’s “Empire of Lights” was estimated to be worth over £45 million. Auction house Sotheby’s called it “a masterpiece of 20th century art”.
The painting is part of a series of 17 similar oils and 10 other works depicting the scene Magritte produced between the 1940s and 1960s.
The one up for auction on Wednesday was painted for Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet, Magritte’s friend and daughter of her patron, Belgian collector Pierre Crowet. Since then, it has been in the hands of the family.
The work shows a dark street in Brussels, with the silhouettes of trees and a house with light shining from the windows and a lamppost. Above is blue sky and white clouds.
Other lots offered in the auction were four works by Claude Monet, painted in the 1880s and 1890s, when he turned away from Impressionism. The main lot, a representation of a cluster of chrysanthemums, fetched £8.29m.
works of Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh and David Hockney were also offered at auction.
Source: CNN Brasil
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