Christie's annual Art of the Surreal sale made £48.1 million on King Street, led by René Magritte's La reconnaissance infinie.
Christie’s King Street in St James’s sold 24 of the 25 lots in its Art of the Surreal evening on Wednesday 5 March 2025, for £48.1 million.
Olivier Camu began the Art of the Surreal in 2001, and it is the house’s annual reading of the movement’s market. James Christie founded the house in 1766, and it has sold from 8 King Street since 1823.
The 2025 sale came a year after the Centre Pompidou’s centenary survey of Surrealism in Paris. Camu judged it the most successful Surrealist sale Christie’s had held. It followed the 20th/21st Century evening sale that night, which raised £82.2 million.
René Magritte’s La reconnaissance infinie, painted in 1933, led at £10.3 million. Three Paul Delvaux paintings from one collector’s estate, kept in Christie’s storage for more than 30 years, drew long bidding contests. His La ville endormie of 1938 made £6.2 million.
Max Ernst’s Colorado de Méduse, never before offered at auction, made £3.1 million. The sale almost doubled its low estimate.
The lots ran from Jean Arp’s marble Étoile to Leonora Carrington’s Elohim of 1960. Magritte’s Le stropiat of 1948 was the one lot left unsold.