René Magritte Value: Top Prices Paid at Auction

This extraordinary 1954 version of Magritte's recurring L'Empire Des Lumières theme achieved the artist's current auction record when it sold at Christie's New York in November 2024. Magritte went on to paint 17 “Empire of Light” artworks after beginning the series in 1948. This particular painting, which had been in the collection of Mica Ertegun since 1968, exemplifies Magritte's most celebrated compositional concept: the paradoxical juxtaposition of day and night existing simultaneously in a single image. The visual contradiction makes this series so revolutionary. The work's exceptional provenance contributed to its record-breaking performance, with an exhibition history featuring displays in New York, Tokyo, Lausanne, Munich, Montreal, Vienna, and more.

Another painting from Magritte’s most popular series, this 1961 piece sold at Sotheby's London in March 2022, setting what was then a new auction record for the artist. The painting belonged to Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet, Belgian tennis player and daughter of Baron and Baroness Gillion Crowet. It was initially gifted to Anne-Marie, Magritte’s muse at the time, by the artist himself. This canvas showcases the quintessential elements of the series - the illuminated house set against the dark silhouettes of trees, contrasted with a bright daylit sky. The painting had rarely been seen before its appearance at auction in 2022, which, along with its romantic origins, helped to secure this impressive value.

This earlier, smaller rendition from Magritte's iconic series, L'Empire Des Lumières, sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2023. At 80.3 x 65.7 cm, the composition focuses on a single illuminated building with a greater sense of mystery than the larger works. Magritte himself said that he preferred his works to evoke mystery rather than have concrete meaning; he wanted his viewers to ask “What does that mean?” without finding an answer. The consistent market performance of the L'Empire Des Lumières series demonstrates the enduring appeal of Magritte’s particular brand of paradox - his Surreal exploration of oppositional objects and states has a subtlety and calmness that makes him stand out from his contemporaries.

L'Ami Intime (The Intimate Friend) (1958) achieved this impressive result at the Christie's London Art of the Surreal sale in March 2024. The painting depicts one of Magritte's most iconic motifs - a bowler-hatted man set against a cloudy sky. In this case, the man is seen from behind, with a baguette and glass of wine hovering behind him. This composition exemplifies Magritte's distinctive approach to the uncanny, transforming mundane objects and figures into mysterious, inexplicable symbols. The bowler-hatted figure, representing the anonymous modern man, appears throughout Magritte's oeuvre and has become one of his most recognisable and sought-after subjects. Like many of Magritte’s most iconic works, this painting’s provenance leads from its original sale at the Galerie Alexander Iolas, in Paris and New York, through New York, London, Brussels, Zurich, Arkansas and beyond.

This 1949 canvas is one of the earliest from Magritte's celebrated L'Empire Des Lumières series. It sold at Christie's London in November 2023. Unlike many works from this series, this painting focuses on a discernable street of at least three houses despite its relatively small size. The layering of the central house adds to the sense of depth, darkness, and mystery. Its exceptional provenance included the collection of former US President, Nelson A. Rockefeller, who then gifted the piece to his long-time secretary, Louise Auchincloss Boyer, in 1950. Since then, it has appeared in collections and galleries across the globe, which contributed to its market performance in 2023.

This ominously titled painting, La Voix Du Sang (The Voice of Blood) (1948), achieved this impressive result at Christie's London in November 2022. The painting depicts another of Magritte's most distinctive motifs - a tree with door-like openings in its trunk revealing both domestic and surreal scenes. This striking juxtaposition of an organic exterior with architectural interiors has long been described as a kind of visual poetry, and perhaps originated with Magritte’s own love of poetry and its emotive power. Created in 1948, the work dates from a crucial period when Magritte was refining his most enduring imagery after abandoning his brief experimental "Renoir period,” otherwise known as his “Sunlit Surrealism” phase. Works from this time were brighter and more Impressionistic, without the defined edges and high contrast that are so distinctive in his later works.

Le Principe Du Plaisir (1937), which translates to The Pleasure Principle, sold at Sotheby's New York in November 2018, establishing what was then a new auction record for the artist. This portrait of Edward James, the British poet and influential patron of Surrealist art, features one of Magritte's signature visual devices - a face replaced by a glowing orb of light. It was based on a photograph taken by Man Ray that Magritte had precisely and deliberately choreographed during his stay with James in 1937. Although pre-dating many of his bowler-hatted portraits, it captures the same uncanny, unsettling atmosphere that so many now associate with his work. The painting's exceptional provenance, having been commissioned directly by James, contributed significantly to its performance in 2018, exceeding its high estimate by almost £3,00,000.

A La Rencontre Du Plaisir (Towards Pleasure) (1962) achieved this impressive result at Christie's London in February 2020. The painting features a unique combination of Magritte's most recognisable motifs - a nocturnal forest scene with a full moon visible in a bright blue sky, with a barely visible silhouette of a bowler-hatted man in the foreground. The work's strong performance, setting a new record for Magritte amidst the early uncertainties of the global pandemic, demonstrated the resilience of the market for exceptional examples of his mature style. It was created in 1962, just five years before the artist's death, and therefore showcases a culmination of his technical, artistic, and conceptual development.

Le lieu commun (The Commonplace) (1964) sold at Christie's London in February 2019, as a rare example of a full portrait by Magritte. Where Magritte’s bowler-hatted men usually have their faces obscured or directed away, this painting splits the portrait into two key angles - from the front and in partial profile. This work is emblematic of the last phase of Magritte’s career, representing his continued innovation with familiar imagery. The doubling of its central anonymous bourgeois character speaks to Magritte’s fascination with the uncanny, while the woodland scene, juxtaposed with geometric stone walls, harks back to Magritte’s Empire of Light compositions. The piece was originally commissioned by Gustave J. Nellens, a prominent collector of Magritte’s work, in 1964; and, after two decades of exhibition in Europe, was purchased by a collector in Asia but never appeared at auction before its sale in 2019.

L'Arc de Triomphe (1962) achieved this significant result at Christie's London in July 2020, taking the tenth place on this list. Its provenance includes prominent display at the Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage exhibition that toured America in 1968, a Brussels retrospective in 1988, and a solo Magritte exhibition at Pace Gallery in 1990. Since then, it has been owned by two collectors but was not seen publicly between 2000 and 2020. The composition, with a single tree in the foreground and leaves in the background, is a visual puzzle that explores the relationship between an object and its representation. It is a perfect example of Magritte’s concept of “dislocation,” wherein the conventional foreground and background of a painting are reversed. The work’s conception and creation was partly a collaborative endeavour, involving many of his friends in the process. He first conceived the idea for the painting in a letter to his friend, fellow painter André Bosmans, in February 1962, and the work’s title was suggested by Suzi Gablik after Magritte originally named it Les Goûts Et Les Couleurs.