René Magritte’s famous painting The Empire of Enlightenment (1954) fetched $121.2 million at Christie’s in New York on Tuesday night, setting a new auction record for the Belgian Surrealist painter.
The canvas was offered during an auction dedicated to work from the estate of Mica Ertegun, the interior designer and art collector who died last year at 97. Estimated at $95 million, it was guaranteed by the house and backed by a third-party bid, and so the new record was essentially a fait accompli. The price, which includes Christie’s fees, surpassed the $79.8 million that was paid for a 1961 version of The Empire of Enlightenment at Sotheby’s in 2022. (That is about $86.7 million, adjusted for inflation.)
The work is poised to become the top-selling lot of the bellwether auctions in Manhattan this week, giving a shot in the arm to the struggling art market.
Bidding began at $75 million, and in just a few minutes approached $100 million, as the action slowed. Two telephone bidders dueled via Christie’s staffers Alex Rotter and Xin Li-Cohen. The room was silent. You could have heard a pin drop. Almost 10 minutes into the proceeding, Rotter was on top with a $105 million bid, and Li-Cohen signaled that her client was bowing out. The room erupted in applause. The buyer’s premium brought the total to $121.2 million.
Between 1949 and 1964, Magritte created 17 versions of the The empire of lights in oil, as well as several more variations in gouache. (One example sold later in the evening in Christie’s 20th-century art auction for $18.8 million. Its winner? A client with Li-Cohen.) Each depicts the same scene: A house lit up from inside, surrounded by the black silhouettes of trees, set against a bright blue daylit sky.
The artist’s top 10 lots, listed on the Artnet Price Database, include four variations of The Empire of Enlightenmentwith three offered in the past two years. Another version of the painting is included in the great survey of Surrealism now at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, timed with the movement’s 100th anniversary.
“It’s an iconic image for Magritte, for Surrealism and Modern art,” said New York art dealer Emmanuel Di Donna, who’s championed various Surrealist artists. “Some works of art transcend the movement and this is one of them. The brand recognition of Magritte is incredibly strong.”
In 2011, Di Donna borrowed the work from Ertegun for the inaugural exhibition of his Manhattan gallery and displayed it on the cover of the show’s catalog. “This painting is one of the best of the group, if not the best,” he said.
Ertegun bought the painting in 1968, according to Christie’s. Over the years, she lent it to exhibitions in France, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, and Japan.
