Magritte's work would fetch 64 million dollars

Magritte's work would fetch $64 million in auction celebrating a century of surrealism

The auction house Christie's announced on Saturday that it will offer the work “L’ami intime” (The Intimate Friend) in a sale that will take place on March 7 in London

LONDON - An important work by surrealist painter René Magritte that has not been on public display for a quarter of a century could fetch 50 million pounds ($64 million) at auction next month.
Christie's auction house announced Saturday that it will offer “L’ami intime” (The Intimate Friend) in a sale taking place March 7 in London that will commemorate a century of the surrealist movement in art.
The painting includes several of the Belgian artist's signature motifs, such as a man in a bowler hat and fluffy white clouds against a blue sky. In this painting, completed in 1958, the man appears from behind, looking towards a mountainous landscape. In the foreground, a baguette and a glass of wine.

Olivier Camu, Christie's vice president for impressionist and modern art, said the “highly poetic and dreamy” painting is one of Magritte's most important works in private hands. Last publicly exhibited in Brussels in 1998, it is up for auction for the first time since 1980, and has a pre-sale estimate of between £30 million and £50 million ($38 million and $64 million).

This year marks the centenary of André Breton's “Surrealist Manifesto,” which defined a revolutionary art movement characterized by disturbing juxtapositions and paradoxical statements, as in Magritte's most famous work, a painting of a pipe titled “This is Not a Pipe.” ”.

“Now it has become common to think about the subconscious, psychology, psychoanalysis... but they were the ones who opened the doors,” Camu said.

According to Camu, Magritte, who died in 1967, has become the most “in demand” of all the surrealists. Unlike his contemporaries, such as Salvador Dalí, there are few specific cultural or religious references in his work.

“Magritte never explained anything,” says Camu, even the titles of his paintings were suggested by friends.

“In Magritte there is never a trace of religion, or of particular history, or of anything,” he said. “They are totally conceptual paintings, clean, powerful, disturbing, wonderful, silent. They are accessible to everyone.”

This claim is supported by the increase in prices for Magritte's work in recent years, which reached a record figure of 59.4 million pounds ($79.8 million at the time) for “L'empire des lumières” (The Empire of Light) at a Sotheby's auction in 2022.

The work that will go on sale in March comes from the collection of the late Gilbert Kaplan - founder of the publication Institutional Investor - and his wife, Lena Kaplan.

The painting will be on display before the sale at Christie's in Los Angeles on February 3, 5 and 6, in New York from February 9 to 14, in Hong Kong from February 21 to 23 and in London from February 1 to 7. March.