Modigliani sells for 27 million euros and Magritte for 10.7 million at Sotheby’s in Paris

Sotheby’s capitalise on the excitement of Art Basel Paris week and set a French sales record at their Surrealist and Modern art auctions.

The most expensive lot was Amedeo Modigliani’s “Elvira. Bust” of 1918–19, sold for €27 million. This is a record price in France for a work by the Italian artist and the most expensive work ever sold at Sotheby’s auctions in Paris. The canvas, which has not been seen in public since 1947, drew seven bidders.

The leader of the Surrealist sale was René Magritte’s “Black Magic” of 1934, sold for €10.7 million. For almost a hundred years the canvas remained in the private collection of the family of the French Resistance member Suzanne Spaak, executed by the Gestapo for rescuing Jewish children. Spaak and her family were patrons of Magritte at a time when the artist could not sell a single painting.

Overall, about 90% of the works offered were sold at both auctions, with almost a third of the Surrealist lots going to American collectors.