NEW YORK (AP) At an auction in New York, the Belgian surrealist Ren Magritte’s unsettling streetscape at night beneath a pale blue day sky brought in a record $121.2 million for the artist.
As part of Christie’s sale of interior designer Mica Ertegun’s collection, the painting, titled “The Empire of Light,” sold Tuesday. Ertegun passed away last year at the age of 97.
With the transaction, Magritt becomes one of the artists whose pieces have brought in over $100 million at auction. According to market research firm Artprice, Magritte is the sixteenth member of the group that also consists artists Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Leonardo da Vinci.
Magritte painted the same subject in oil in 17 different variations, including the one that sold Tuesday in 1954. Christie’s Americas chairman Marc Porter referred to the sale as a “historic moment” in our saleroom.
The auction house’s expenses are included in the $121.2 million price. The buyer, whose identity was kept a secret, was a telephone bidder.
Sotheby’s sale of contemporary art, which include the conceptual work Comedian by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, will take place on Wednesday as part of the ongoing fall auctions in New York. It is a banana that has been pasted on a wall.
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