“L’empire des lumières” (1961), one of a series by the Surrealist, was auctioned during a bustling London art week.
Workers holding René Magritte’s “L’empire des lumières” outside the London location of Sotheby’s, whose building was decorated to resemble the painting.
Credit...C. Herscovici/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Tristan Fewings/Getty Images
By Scott Reyburn
March 2, 2022
One of René Magritte’s famed “Empire of Light” canvases sold Wednesday for 59.4 million pounds with fees, or about $79.7 million, almost three times the auction high price at auction for a work by the Belgian Surrealist artist. Certain to raise at least $60 million, courtesy of a guaranteed minimum price financed by Sotheby’s, the 1961 painting was sought by three bidders, all represented by Sotheby’s specialists on telephones in London.
The painting, “L’empire des lumières,” which juxtaposes a nocturnal lamplit street with a serene daylit sky, is one of the most celebrated and enigmatic images in 20th-century art. Magritte painted no fewer than 17 canvases of the day-and-night subject starting in 1948.
Sotheby’s variant, one of the latest and largest, had been made for Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet, the daughter of Magritte’s friend, patron and chess opponent Pierre Crowet. It had remained in the same family collection ever since.
“Over the years, there have been numerous versions that have been sold, and they have performed extremely well,” said Melanie Clore, a co-founder of the London-based art adviser company Clore Wyndham.
She said that in terms of composition, scale and condition, this 1961 work was “one of the most desirable Magritte paintings to come to auction.”
In 2011, when Clore was working as a specialist in Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby’s, her department auctioned a 1953 version for $3.8 million, although at the time that was not among the highest prices achieved for the artist.
“L’empire des lumieres” (1961) by René Magritte.Credit...C. Herscovici/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Sotheby's
The Magritte was the obvious standout lot of London’s marquee spring series of auctions this week that were devoted to big-ticket Impressionist, modern and contemporary art. But top-end sales like these at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips’s European headquarters aren’t what they once were.
With Britain’s economy diminished by Brexit and China a more powerful force in the global art market, London was the third-biggest-selling auction center in 2021, behind New York and Hong Kong, according to Pi-eX, a London-based company that analyzes international auction sales.
The hybrid live-online “evening” sales in London are now held in the afternoon, to straddle the world’s time zones, and Impressionist and contemporary artworks are no longer auctioned on separate days. Bonnard is jumbled together with Basquiat and Banksy.
“It’s a new world,” said the Paris-based dealer Christian Ogier, who regularly attends these London auctions. “Mixing the modern and the contemporary is understandable. Why not? I don’t stop at any category.”
But London, with its huge concentrations of international wealth, including Russian oligarchs with links to the Kremlin (which the British government is now trying to restrict and regulate), continues to be a magnet for buyers and sellers of big-name art trophies.
In addition to the Magritte, Sotheby’s sale also included a Monet “Nymphéas,” or waterlily canvas, painted in 1914-17, that hadn’t been seen at auction since 1978. Entered from a Japanese collection, this made $31.2 million, again bought by a telephone bidder.
“Nymphéas” (1914-17) by Claude Monet.
By Scott Reyburn
March 2, 2022
One of René Magritte’s famed “Empire of Light” canvases sold Wednesday for 59.4 million pounds with fees, or about $79.7 million, almost three times the auction high price at auction for a work by the Belgian Surrealist artist. Certain to raise at least $60 million, courtesy of a guaranteed minimum price financed by Sotheby’s, the 1961 painting was sought by three bidders, all represented by Sotheby’s specialists on telephones in London.
The painting, “L’empire des lumières,” which juxtaposes a nocturnal lamplit street with a serene daylit sky, is one of the most celebrated and enigmatic images in 20th-century art. Magritte painted no fewer than 17 canvases of the day-and-night subject starting in 1948.
Sotheby’s variant, one of the latest and largest, had been made for Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet, the daughter of Magritte’s friend, patron and chess opponent Pierre Crowet. It had remained in the same family collection ever since.
“Over the years, there have been numerous versions that have been sold, and they have performed extremely well,” said Melanie Clore, a co-founder of the London-based art adviser company Clore Wyndham.
She said that in terms of composition, scale and condition, this 1961 work was “one of the most desirable Magritte paintings to come to auction.”
In 2011, when Clore was working as a specialist in Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby’s, her department auctioned a 1953 version for $3.8 million, although at the time that was not among the highest prices achieved for the artist.
“L’empire des lumieres” (1961) by René Magritte.Credit...C. Herscovici/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Sotheby'sThe Magritte was the obvious standout lot of London’s marquee spring series of auctions this week that were devoted to big-ticket Impressionist, modern and contemporary art. But top-end sales like these at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips’s European headquarters aren’t what they once were.
With Britain’s economy diminished by Brexit and China a more powerful force in the global art market, London was the third-biggest-selling auction center in 2021, behind New York and Hong Kong, according to Pi-eX, a London-based company that analyzes international auction sales.
The hybrid live-online “evening” sales in London are now held in the afternoon, to straddle the world’s time zones, and Impressionist and contemporary artworks are no longer auctioned on separate days. Bonnard is jumbled together with Basquiat and Banksy.
“It’s a new world,” said the Paris-based dealer Christian Ogier, who regularly attends these London auctions. “Mixing the modern and the contemporary is understandable. Why not? I don’t stop at any category.”
But London, with its huge concentrations of international wealth, including Russian oligarchs with links to the Kremlin (which the British government is now trying to restrict and regulate), continues to be a magnet for buyers and sellers of big-name art trophies.
In addition to the Magritte, Sotheby’s sale also included a Monet “Nymphéas,” or waterlily canvas, painted in 1914-17, that hadn’t been seen at auction since 1978. Entered from a Japanese collection, this made $31.2 million, again bought by a telephone bidder.
“Nymphéas” (1914-17) by Claude Monet.Credit...Sotheby's
“The Foxes” (1913) by Franz Marc.
Credit...Christie's
On Tuesday evening, Christie’s offered “The Foxes,” a market-fresh masterwork by the German Expressionist painter Franz Marc, as the headline lot of its spring London sales.
Recently returned to the heirs of the Berlin collectors Kurt and Else Grawi, “The Foxes” (1913) was one of Marc’s most powerful Cubist-influenced studies of animals. (The artist admired them more than humans.)
Guaranteed to sell for at least $47 million, it was pushed by three telephone bidders to $57.2 million, the top price of the Christie’s sale and a record for the artist at auction.
Francis Bacon’s seemingly impressive “Triptych 1986-7” was similarly estimated and guaranteed. But Bacon’s later paintings are much less sought-after than his earlier works, and the work fell to a single bid of $51.6 million, the ninth-highest auction price for the important artist.
About 90 percent of the lots at Christie’s found buyers, but Banksy’s “Happy Choppers,” a tongue-in-cheek stencil painting of helicopter gunships wearing Minnie Mouse bows, failed to sell against a low estimate of $4 million.
The Tuesday evening sales at Christie’s raised $298 million; the Wednesday evening auction of modern and contemporary works at Sotheby’s, preceded by “The Now,” took in $297.2 million. That combined total of $595 million was 39 percent down from the $971 million achieved at the equivalent London sales in February 2014, when art sales were at a high, according to Pi-eX.
Paintings by younger market favorites drew the most intense competition. After a lethargic 90-minute sale of 20 contemporary works livestreamed from Shanghai to inaugurate the company’s new offices and galleries in mainland China, Christie’s kick-started its main “20/21” sale with works by Jade Fadojutimi, Shara Hughes, Amoako Boafo and Flora Yukhnovich. “You’re going to make me blush,” a painting by Yukhnovich from 2017 inspired by Fragonard’s “The Swing,” took in $2.6 million against a low estimate of $340,000.
On Tuesday evening, Christie’s offered “The Foxes,” a market-fresh masterwork by the German Expressionist painter Franz Marc, as the headline lot of its spring London sales.
Recently returned to the heirs of the Berlin collectors Kurt and Else Grawi, “The Foxes” (1913) was one of Marc’s most powerful Cubist-influenced studies of animals. (The artist admired them more than humans.)
Guaranteed to sell for at least $47 million, it was pushed by three telephone bidders to $57.2 million, the top price of the Christie’s sale and a record for the artist at auction.
Francis Bacon’s seemingly impressive “Triptych 1986-7” was similarly estimated and guaranteed. But Bacon’s later paintings are much less sought-after than his earlier works, and the work fell to a single bid of $51.6 million, the ninth-highest auction price for the important artist.
About 90 percent of the lots at Christie’s found buyers, but Banksy’s “Happy Choppers,” a tongue-in-cheek stencil painting of helicopter gunships wearing Minnie Mouse bows, failed to sell against a low estimate of $4 million.
The Tuesday evening sales at Christie’s raised $298 million; the Wednesday evening auction of modern and contemporary works at Sotheby’s, preceded by “The Now,” took in $297.2 million. That combined total of $595 million was 39 percent down from the $971 million achieved at the equivalent London sales in February 2014, when art sales were at a high, according to Pi-eX.
Paintings by younger market favorites drew the most intense competition. After a lethargic 90-minute sale of 20 contemporary works livestreamed from Shanghai to inaugurate the company’s new offices and galleries in mainland China, Christie’s kick-started its main “20/21” sale with works by Jade Fadojutimi, Shara Hughes, Amoako Boafo and Flora Yukhnovich. “You’re going to make me blush,” a painting by Yukhnovich from 2017 inspired by Fragonard’s “The Swing,” took in $2.6 million against a low estimate of $340,000.
“Tu vas me faire rougir (You’re going to make me blush)”
(2017) by Flora Yukhnovich.Credit...Christie's
The same names shone at Sotheby’s 21-lot “The Now” sale of works by on-trend contemporary artists. Shara Hughes’s psychedelic 2019 flower painting “The Naked Lady” sold for a record $2.7 million, and a 2020 work by Yukhnovich, “Warm, Wet N’ Wild,” soared to $3.6 million, setting an auction high for the much-sought-after British artist. It had been estimated that it would sell for $200,000.
Last year, works by artists under 40 raised a record $450 million at auction. This represented a 275 percent increase from 2020, with 8,952 works in the category offered, also a record, according to Artprice, a France-based company that tracks international salesroom results.
“It’s dangerous,” said Samuel Selby, 21, a London-based collector of contemporary pieces. “I’m worried about how the auction houses are taking works by young artists and selling them for ridiculous prices.”
“It’s going to be difficult to maintain in the long-run,” Selby added.
The same names shone at Sotheby’s 21-lot “The Now” sale of works by on-trend contemporary artists. Shara Hughes’s psychedelic 2019 flower painting “The Naked Lady” sold for a record $2.7 million, and a 2020 work by Yukhnovich, “Warm, Wet N’ Wild,” soared to $3.6 million, setting an auction high for the much-sought-after British artist. It had been estimated that it would sell for $200,000.
Last year, works by artists under 40 raised a record $450 million at auction. This represented a 275 percent increase from 2020, with 8,952 works in the category offered, also a record, according to Artprice, a France-based company that tracks international salesroom results.
“It’s dangerous,” said Samuel Selby, 21, a London-based collector of contemporary pieces. “I’m worried about how the auction houses are taking works by young artists and selling them for ridiculous prices.”
“It’s going to be difficult to maintain in the long-run,” Selby added.
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