Renee Margit’s painting “Empire of Lights” was auctioned at the record price of $11 million

The “Empire of Lights”, an iconic by Renee Magrit, was sold yesterday, Tuesday (19.11.2024), in auction at $112 million, a record amount for the Belgian artist, as this year the 100 years are celebrated by the “birth” of the surrealist movement in art. After ten minutes of bidding at the Rockefeller Center, where the Christie’s auction was held in New York, USA, the project was sold for $121,160,000 (including commission and taxes). It is the largest amount ever given for surrealist painting. The “Empire of Lights” also became the 11th most expensive painting in the history of public auctions, based on the figures of the French Agency. The painting is part of a series of works of the same name by the Belgian painter (1898–1967) that present the play of shadow and light. It depicts a strange landscape: a house at night, illuminated only by a lamp, under a blue sky. “Empire of Lights” is a subject that thrills Magrit’s worshipers since four of the five paintings of the painter who exceeded $30 million in auctions were part of this series. One of them also held the previous record (79 million, in 2022) for Magrit’s work. The painting inspired among others American director William Friedkin for the famous 1973 horror film “The Exorcist”. It belonged to the private collection of Mika Ertegun, an interior architect who fled communist Romania and settled in the US where she became a major patron of the art world. Ertegun died in late 2023 at the age of 97. She was also the wife of Ahmet Ertegun, the music industry mogul, founder of the Atlantic Records record company. At the same auction, a painting by Ed Russa, the “Fire Award Standard, a Western of ten cents torn in half”, was sold for $68,260,000 million an amount that constitutes a record for this American, living artist of pop art. It is the second largest amount given in auction for living artist work, behind the “Portret of the Artist”. (Pina in two forms)” by British David Hawkney, sold in 2018 against 90 million.