A masterpiece by Magritte could fetch more than € 54 M. in auction

The painting "The Empire of Lights" painted in 1961 by the Belgian surrealist Magritte will be the star of a Sotheby's auction in London on March 2. He could leave at a record amount of almost 54 million euros. One of the 17 paintings of "The Empire of Lights" painted in 1961 will be put on sale on March 2 by Sotheby's in London. The painting depicts a dark street in Brussels, lit by a simple lamppost, located near Josaphat Park, not far from where the surrealist painter lived in the 1950s. One of 17 paintings from the Empire of Lights series by Magritte is set to sell for a record £45 million, or nearly €54 million, at an auction held in London on March 2 by Sotheby's, reports The Guardian . A painting made for the painter's muse The 114.5 cm by 146 cm or 45 x 57 1/2 inch work was painted in 1961 for Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet, muse, close friend of the painter, and daughter of Belgian surrealist art patron and collector Pierre Crowet. It also appears in several of the artist's paintings. The Crowet family loaned the painting to the Magritte Museum in Brussels from 2009 to 2020. According to the president of Sotheby's Europe, Helena Newman, the painting is "spectacular". It represents the paradoxical image of a night street where only a house can be made out by the light escaping from the windows and the contours of a large tree, in total contrast with the blue of a sky. by day. "A masterpiece of 20th century art, The Empire of Lights brings together the two most fundamental elements of everyday life – those of day and night. With its impressive scale, the cinematic painting draws the viewer into the timeless world of Magritte," says Helena Newman. This is the artist's only series, and this painting would be the most "charismatic" of the 17 oil paintings. "The works evolved over time but continued to speak to each other, just like Vincent van Gogh's Starry Nights and Claude Monet's Water Lilies ," according to Sotheby's. Read also The advertised price is an estimate. Never has a work by Magritte been sold for such an amount, and rare are the works sold in Europe for such a high price. Before being auctioned, the painting will be exhibited publicly in Sotheby's galleries in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, New York or London, according to the British newspaper. Seen in Le Progres 300+ works by Magritte in this video