As soon as once more, the market confirms the urge for food for Surrealism in instances of world uncertainty—its eerie resonance underscores the very contradictions of our civilization it as soon as sought to show. Yesterday (Sept. 17) at Sotheby’s London, collectors from all over the world eagerly gathered to witness the trove of Pauline Karpidas occurring the block; the single-owner sale achieved a white-glove end at £73 million ($100 million). Cross-category bidding was fierce, with multiple work chased by at the very least seven contenders and 70 p.c of the heaps hovering previous their excessive estimates. As anticipated, the sale secured its place as probably the most helpful single-owner public sale ever staged in Europe.
“It has been a once-in-a-lifetime privilege for all of us at Sotheby’s to have fun the extraordinary particular person and patron that Pauline Karpidas is,” mentioned Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s chairman for Europe, whose lengthy friendship with Karpidas was rooted in mutual admiration and a shared imaginative and prescient. “I’ve stood on this rostrum extra instances than I can depend, however I do know I’ll always remember the second the ultimate hammer fell—nor the electrical power that has crammed our galleries over the previous eight days.” In an interview with Observer earlier this 12 months, Barker praised Karpidas’s accumulating as pushed purely by intuition and conviction relatively than market fashions.
On the coronary heart of the sale had been 23 Surrealist masterpieces, which collectively realized £30.2 million ($41.1 million). “Surrealism caught Pauline’s consideration early on,” defined Barker, “not simply as an artwork motion, however as a means of seeing the world otherwise.” The gathering hums with Surrealism’s signature rigidity—magnificence sparring with drama, vulnerability shadowed by ferocity—surfacing by way of symbolic languages pulled from the unconscious. Karpidas turned one of many motion’s most ardent supporters after being launched by legendary supplier Alexander Iolas, who guided her towards buying a few of its most visionary creators.
The star of the Surrealist trove, Magritte’s La Statue Volante, held in her assortment for 4 many years and bought by way of Iolas, ultimately landed inside its estimate, doubtless promoting to its third-party guarantor for £10,120,000 ($13,762,188). Different Magritte works impressed extra heated competitors: Tête drew 4 bidders earlier than promoting for £914,400 ($1,243,493), practically tripling its £300,000-500,000 estimate and setting a report for a plaster sculpture by the artist, whereas La Race Blanche matched its excessive estimate at £635,000 ($863,536) after a battle between 5 bidders.
The evening additionally rewrote a number of public sale data. Hans Bellmer’s Milles Filles tripled expectations of £100,000-150,000, promoting for £304,800 ($414,498) to an Asian collector after a six-bidder contest. One of many few surviving collaborative works by Max Ernst and his spouse Marie-Berthe Aurenche additionally set a report, touchdown £533,400 ($725,371) close to its high estimate.
One other extremely anticipated lot, the otherworldly and richly symbolic The Hour of Angelus by Leonora Carrington, offered above its excessive estimate for £952,500 after charges—marking a stellar 12 months for the artist, who has been on the forefront of renewed curiosity in Latin American Surrealists. In response to the lately launched Sotheby’s x ArtTactic Perception Report on Surrealism, the class noticed exceptional development between 2018 and 2024, attaining a compound annual development fee of twenty-two.8 p.c—nicely above that of the general market. Driving this surge are significantly ladies like Carrington and Leonor Fini: the market share for Latin American ladies Surrealists is estimated to have risen from 17.5 p.c in 2018 to 86 p.c within the first half of 2025.
In the meantime, Dorothea Tanning’s Katchina and Her Soul offered to a collector in Asia for £889,000 ($1,208,951), greater than doubling its £300,000-500,000 estimate after a six-bidder contest. The end result additional underscores the rising demand for long-overlooked feminine voices within the motion—or just for aesthetics that faucet into the oneiric and archetypal abysses of the person and collective unconscious. The identical Sotheby’s x ArtTactic report notes that public sale gross sales for ladies Surrealists climbed from $7.9 million in 2018 to $94.3 million in 2024.
Among the many highest costs ever achieved for a piece by Yves Tanguy was the lunar panorama Titre Inconnu, which offered for £2,480,000 ($3,372,552), doubling its presale estimate. André Masson’s La Femme paralytique additionally achieved a major end result, promoting for £1,077,000 ($1,464,612) after being chased by 5 bidders. The end result greater than doubled its £350,000-450,000 estimate and much surpassed the final value of £272,446 it fetched at public sale in 1991.
Exterior the Surrealist realm, different works exceeded expectations. Karpidas’s ominously darkish Andy Warhol The Scream (After Munch) was pursued for ten minutes by at the very least six bidders, in the end promoting for £6,628,000 ($9,013,417)—marking the best value ever for this topic by Warhol and several other million greater than its final public sale results of £62,000 at Sotheby’s in 1996. That very same power prolonged to different Munch-inspired Warhols: Madonna and Self-Portrait with Skeleton’s Arm (After Munch) offered for £2,846,000 ($3,870,275), nicely above their mixed excessive estimate and leagues past their earlier public sale value of £82,500 in 1990.
Sturdy outcomes additionally got here for standout design items in Karpidas’s assortment, together with Diego Giacometti’s Berceau Low Desk, Première Model, which doubled its excessive estimate after being pursued by six bidders. The desk in the end offered for £508,000 on the telephone with Helena Newman, worldwide head of Impressionist & Fashionable Artwork, underscoring how collectors are transferring fluidly throughout classes—particularly because the design market continues to show its power.
This market momentum for design was made even clearer by the string of Lalanne items that surpassed the million-pound mark. Amongst them, Claude Lalanne’s Distinctive Choupette—described by Barker as “an icon in its personal proper”—soared previous its £300,000-400,000 estimate to fetch £1,870,000 after charges. Equally, leaping from five-figure estimates to a seven-figure end result, the richly ornamented Distinctive Construction Végétale mirror and wall gentle offered for £3,578,000 in opposition to its £350,000-450,000 estimate. The 2 Console Végétale works additionally delivered standout outcomes, attaining £1,809,000 and £1,992,000, respectively. In the meantime, the customized Distinctive Construction Végétale Mattress introduced in £889,000 (est. £200,000-300,000), the Distinctive Entrelacs Bench offered for £1,077,000 (est. £150,000-200,000), and the pair of Distinctive Crocodile Stools reached a stellar £977,900 from an authentic £180,000-250,000 estimate.
The wedding of glamour and kitsch in Jeff Koons’s Poodle drew keen bidding, doubling its estimate to promote for £2,358,000. Pablo Picasso’s Buste d’homme and Francis Picabia’s Deux amies likewise exceeded expectations, attaining £2,480,000 and £3,334,000, respectively.
Two extra gross sales of works from the gathering adopted the standout night public sale: a 193-lot day sale at this time (Sept. 18), and a 97-lot on-line sale that closes September 19.
New patrons are fueling the Surrealism and design markets
In response to the Sotheby’s x ArtTactic Perception Report, public sale gross sales for Surrealism climbed from $726.1 million to $800.7 million between 2018 and 2024, with the style’s share of the worldwide artwork market practically doubling from 9.3 p.c to 16.8. Driving this development are probably the most acclaimed Surrealist names, whose costs rose by 131.6 p.c throughout that interval, with an 8.8 p.c compound annual development fee—nicely above the broader artwork market.
But demand can also be rising for what the report calls “modern surrealists”—a brand new era of artists impressed by the motion. Gross sales on this group jumped 264.8 p.c between 2018 and 2024, with a lot of the momentum centered on feminine surrealists. Gross sales for ladies on this class grew by 411.4 p.c, lifting their market share to fifteen.9 p.c—above the common for ladies within the broader artwork market.
One other placing information level from the report: whereas Child Boomers and Gen X stay the dominant power behind the 100-year-old motion, Millennials and Gen Z are steadily increasing their presence. Gen X represented 43.2 p.c of the bidder pool from 2018 by way of the primary half of 2025, with its share rising from 40.0 p.c in 2018 to 52.2 p.c within the first half of this 12 months. Millennials and Gen Z accounted for 15.2 p.c and 6.5 p.c, respectively, with notable demand coming from Asia, which now represents 7.1 p.c of the bidder base on this class.
Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z are additionally fueling the power and international growth of the design market. As considered one of our latest analyses revealed, June’s design gross sales throughout the massive three public sale homes posted a 62.3 p.c year-on-year enhance—proof that the class isn’t simply resilient however accelerating, with new cash pushing it into increased orbit.
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