This post was originally published on artnews.com
On Tuesday night during Christie’s 20th century evening sale, after eleven or so tense minutes of hushed phone conversations behind cupped hands and quick currency conversions, Rene Magritte’s paintng L’empire des lumières (1954) sold for $121 million.
At a press conference after the sale Alex Rotter, Christie’s chairman of 20th and 21st century art, said the house this season had been operating on the “masterpiece approach,” which seems to have been do whatever it takes to secure the best one or two paintings available. That gambit worked. The Magritte, plus a stellar Rucha, the 1964 Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half, which sold for $68 million, more than made up for any mediocre results.
Magritte, who for the last few years has surfing on the crest of the newly invigorated Surrealism market, is now among the artists whose work have sold for over $100 million at auction. Here are a few of the artists who share the view from the art market’s multi-million dollar peak.