On Tuesday (19 Nov) night, René Magritte L’empire des lumières (Empire of Light) (1954) fetched US$121.1 million in New York, making it the most expensive work by the artist and any Surrealist work of art.
With that sale, the Belgian Surrealist master has become the newest member of the US$100 million club, an elite group of fewer than 20 artists whose works have commanded nine-figure sums, including Leonardo da Vinci and Andy Warhol.
The record-setting canvas was offered at Christie's biggest-ticket sale this season, MICA: THE COLLECTION OF MICA ERTEGUN Part I, a single-owner collection auction dedicated to the interior designer Mica Ertegun who passed away last year at 97.
Dubbed the "master class in good taste", the Mica Ertegun collection – and her style – has always been sought-after, and the 19 works that hit the auction block were no exception: they were 100% sold, gathering a total of nearly US$184 million.
Famed interior designer Mica Ertegun was celebrated for her good taste
René Magritte's L’empire des lumières hammered for US$105 million
Lot 19 A | René Magritte (1898-1967) | L’empire des lumières, Oil on canvas (Auction record for the artist and for a Surrealist work of art)
Painted in 1954
146 x 114 cm
Provenance:
- Willy Van Hove, Brussels (acquired from the artist, 1954, until at least 1964)
- Byron Gallery, New York
- Acquired from the above by the late owner, 8 June 1968
Estimate on request (expected to fetch in the region of US$95 million)
Hammer Price: US$105,000,000
Sold: US$121,160,000
Certain to fetch in the region of US$95 million, thanks to a third-party guarantee, the painting ignited a 10-minute bidding war after the auctioneer opened the lot at US$75 million. At least three bidders vied for the work, including the clients of Giovanna Bertazzoni (Chairman, Europe) and Alex Rotter (Chairman, 20/21 Art Departments).
The action slowed only at US$96 million, and it was when Xin Li-Cohen (Deputy Chairman) joined the race. After offering a US$97 million bid, it turned into a duel between her and Rotter. As the silent room held its breath when the bid reached US$103.5 million, Rotter requested a bit of time to calculate. Veteran auctioneer Adrien Meyer then quipped, "Which currency?" suggesting an overseas buyer.
Eventually that buyer offered the winning bid of US$105 million; the room erupted in applause – an applause so loud that the paddle call got covered. With fees, the final sum came to US$121.1 million, shattering Magritte's previous auction record of £59.4 million (around US$78.4 million, set by another version of Empire of Light that sold at Sotheby's in 2022.
Alex Rotter and Xin Li-Cohen dueled for the work
René Magritte | L’Empire des lumières, 114.5 x 146 cm (1961) | Sold: £59.4 million, Sotheby's London, 2022 (Previous auction record for the artist)
One of the key figures in the Surrealist movement, René Magritte is famed for his engaging images that combine everyday objects in whimsical and thought-provoking contexts – in a world of paradoxes, Magritte seeks to question the experience of perception within painting.
In Empire of Light, the artist focuses on the juxtaposition of a nocturnal landscape bathed in deep shadows with the blue expanse of a day-lit sky above. Magritte first came to explore the sky motif in the late 1930s, inspired by a poem that reads, "If only the sun would shine tonight," by André Breton – the founder of the surrealist movement whose Surrealist Manifesto turns 100 this year. The following year, he created a gouache entitled Le Poison, in which a row of buildings took on the appearance of the night sky.
While he continued to explore different translations and juxtapositions of the sky, it was in Empire of Light that he created a composition of night and sky that is all the more unsettling for its quiet, contradictory strangeness. The first painting in the series, completed in 1949, was quickly purchased by Nelson A. Rockefeller in New York, yet the image lived on in the artist's mind.
Over the following fifteen years, he would continue to revisit the motif, creating a total of seventeen versions in oil and several more iterations in gouache on this theme, each subtly different from the next. The present lot, in particular, marks the first time that Magritte introduced a body of water into the scene.
René Magritte
René Magritte | Le Poison (1939) | Collection of Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
The present lot marks the first time Magritte introduced a body of water into the scene
Interestingly, this Empire of Light was created under a rather unusual circumstance. On 19 June 1954, the Venice Biennale opened to the public with the theme of "Surrealist taste", in celebration of what was then the 30th anniversary of Surrealism.
One of the masterworks on the show was the enormous Empire of Light, which attracted a flurry of interest. Magritte soon found himself in trouble, though, as he promised the work to three different buyers. In the end, another collector altogether acquired the canvas: Peggy Guggenheim, who bought it directly for 1,000,000 lire.
As a result, Magritte arranged to create three additional versions of the canvas to appease the other disappointed parties. The present one was made for the Belgian collector Willy van Hove and later went to the Mica Collection in 1968.
Hoisted herself to the highest echelons of art, design, and music, Mica Ertegun has been a sought-after tastemaker, revered by the art and design world for her legendary eye. Also a fashion plate, she was a fixture on the International Best-Dressed List and the Metropolitan Museum of Art even acquired a collection of her gowns.
Born Ioana Maria Banu in 1926, Mica was the only child of a prominent Romanian family; her father was an eminent figure in King Carol II’s cabinet. In 1948, the Communist takeover forced Mica from her native country to Switzerland; she later moved to Paris working as a model, then Canada, where she and her first husband settled and worked on their chicken farm on Lake Ontario.
Mica and Ahmet Ertegun pose before David Hockney's Still Life on a Glass Table from 1971 in their Manhattan residence
Undeterred by the arduous work, she would rise before dawn to clean and gather the eggs, returning every evening to dress for the candlelit dinners she prepared. "It was tough, but it was the best time of my life," she later recalled. "When you are young, anything can be great."
After a decade in Canada, Mica's life took a turn in 1958, when she traveled to New York to meet with the Turkish ambassador in the hope that he could help extricate her father from Romania. There, she met her future husband, Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder of Atlantic Records. Mica soon settled in New York, where they married in 1961, beginning their nearly five-decade-long marriage.
The living room of Mica's home in Bodrum, Turkey
The Southampton home of Mica and Ahmet Ertegun
In 1967, she founded the successful design business MAC II alongside Vogue contributor Chessy Rayner. Over the course of her long career, she redefined contemporary elegance with her crisp, cultivated approach. "We do simple things without being minimalist," she explained of her style.
With her unique design ethos, Mica soon built a notable clientele that included the world’s most tasteful and enlightened figures, and she and MAC II have both been recognized among the AD100, the highly esteemed list of designers and architects.
Mica’s taste for designing dovetailed with her connoisseurship of art and objects. "I tend to tone down everything. It’s the way I like to live," she once said. "I love my objects and I want them to stand out…If it’s too busy, you can’t see the art."
True to her word, Mica curated each room around her world-class collection of art, distinguished by masterpieces such as the Magritte painting. Her collection also extended into Pop art, Avant-garde, Colour Field painting, and more, boasting works by David Hockney, Ed Ruscha, and Morris Louis.
Other highlight lots from the Mica collection:
Lot 7 A | David Hockney (b. 1937) | Still Life on a Glass Table, Acrylic on canvas
Painted in 1971
182.9 x 274.3 cm
Provenance:
- André Emmerich Gallery, Inc., New York
- Christopher Selmes, London (acquired from the above, 1972)
- Lewis M. Kaplan, London
- Waddington Galleries, London (acquired from the above, 1975)
- Acquired from the above by the late owner, 1975
Estimate: US$15,000,000 - 20,000,000
Hammer Price: US$16,200,000
Sold: US$19,040,000
Lot 9 A | René Magritte (1898-1967) | La cour d'amour, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1960
79.9 x 100 cm
Provenance:
- Alexander Iolas, New York (acquired from the artist, January 1961)
- Daniel Filipacchi, Paris (acquired from the above, circa 1964-1965)
- Byron Gallery, New York
- Acquired from the above by the late owner, circa 1968
Estimate: US$9,000,000 - 12,000,000
Hammer Price: US$8,800,000
Sold: US$10,530,000
Lot 4 A | David Hockney (b. 1937) | Three Chairs with a Section of a Picasso Mural, Acrylic on canvas
Painted in 1970
121.9 x 152.4 cm
Provenance:
- Lewis M. Kaplan, London
- Waddington Galleries, London (acquired from the above, 1975)
- Acquired from the above by the late owner, 1975
Estimate: US$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Hammer Price: US$7,500,000
Sold: US$9,035,000
Lot 5 A | René Magritte (1898-1967) | La Mémoire, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1945
45.1 x 54.3 cm
Provenance:
- L'amicale des arts plastiques, Brussels (sold by tombola, 12 January 1946)
- Gérard Gérain, Brussels
- Galerie Isy Brachot, Brussels (acquired from the above, 1968)
- Private collection, Brussels (acquired from the above, circa 1980)
- James Goodman Gallery, Inc., New York
- Galerie Brusberg, Berlin (acquired from the above, 1986)
- Paint and Print Art Dealers, Basel (acquired from the above, 1989)
- Anon. sale, Ader Tajan, Paris, 27 June 1994, lot 66
- Private collection, Switzerland
- Blondeau et Cie., Geneva
- Acquired from the above by the late owner, 28 April 2000
Estimate: US$3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Hammer Price: US$3,000,000
Sold: US$3,680,000
Lot 6 A | Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) | Marble Shatters Drinking Glass, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1968
50.8 x 61 cm
Provenance:
- Alexander Iolas Gallery, New York
- Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
- Acquired from the above by the late owner, by 1976
Estimate: US$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Hammer Price: US$2,200,000
Sold: US$2,712,000
Lot 11 A | Morris Louis (1912-1962) | Hesperides, Magna on canvas
Painted in 1959-1960
264.2 x 213.4 cm
Provenance:
- Park International, New York
- Kasmin Ltd., London
- Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, London (acquired from the above, by 1965)
- Kasmin Ltd., London and Waddington Galleries, London (jointly acquired from the above)
- Alistair McAlpine, London
- Waddington Galleries, London (acquired from the above, 1973)
- Acquired from the above by the late owner, 1974
Estimate: US$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Hammer Price: US$1,700,000
Sold: US$2,107,000
Lot 8 A | Henry Moore (1898-1986) | Reclining Figure, Lead
Conceived in 1931 and cast circa 1931; unique
Length: 42.6 cm
Provenance:
- Frederick and Dorothy Zimmerman, New York (by 1960)
- The Waddington Galleries, Ltd., London
- Acquired from the above by the late owner, 16 March 1976
Estimate: US$500,000 - 700,000
Hammer Price: US$1,300,000
Sold: US$1,623,000
Lot 15 A | Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) | Konstruktion B VI, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1922
74.5 x 44.5 cm
Provenance:
- Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Chicago (until at least 1950)
- Roland, Browse & Delbanco, London
- The Waddington Galleries, Ltd., London
- Acquired from the above by the late owner, 16 March 1976
Estimate: US$700,000 - 1,000,000
Hammer Price: US$1,100,000
Sold: US$1,381,000
Lot 17 A | Amedee Ozenfant (1886-1966) | La Source: Femme au broc, Oil on canvas (Auction record for the artist)
Painted in 1927
110.5 x 132 cm
Provenance:
- Galerie de l'Effort Moderne (Léonce Rosenberg), Paris
- Dr. John Joseph Wardell Power, Paris and Jersey, Channel Islands; Estate sale, Sotheby & Co., London, 7 November 1962, lot 44
- Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd., London (acquired at the above sale)
- The Waddington Galleries, Ltd., London
- Acquired from the above by the late owner, November 1978
Estimate: US$600,000 - 800,000
Hammer Price: US$800,000
Sold: US$1,008,000
Lot 3 A | Fritz Glarner (1899-1972) | Relational Painting No. 76, Oil on canvas in the artist's frame
Painted circa 1955-1956
60 x 51.4 cm
Provenance:
- Graham Gallery, New York (probably acquired from the artist)
- Acquired from the above by the late owner, 5 November 1980
Estimate: US$150,000 - 250,000
Hammer Price: US$150,000
Sold: US$189,000
Auction Details:
Auction House: Christie's New York
Sale: MICA: THE COLLECTION OF MICA ERTEGUN
Date: 19 November 2024
Number of Lots: 19
Sold: 19
Sale Rate: 100%
Sale Total: US$183,915,000