Sotheby’s also presented a sale devoted to Surrealist art and it was a compact, carefully curated, one. Taking first and second place was the master of Surrealism … Salvador Dalí. His Maison pour erotomane (a tiny work measuring just 5 ½ x 7 inches) made an impressive £3.54M ($4.9M – est. £1.2-1.8M) while Gradiva (measuring just 8 x 6 inches) brought £2.7M ($3.75M – est. £1.2-1.8M). In third was Magritte’s Le Jockey Perdu at £1.93M ($2.68M – est. £1-1.5M). Rounding out the top 5 were Magritte’s La Perspective Amoureuse at £1.39M ($1.93M – est. £800-1.2M) and Miro’s Femme et Oiseau V/X at £1.27M ($1.76M – est. £1.2-1.8M).
This sale consisted of just 21 works and 18 of them found new homes (85.7%) with a total take of £17.07M ($23.7M) ... the low end of their estimate range was £10.42M, so I am sure they were happy. And in case you are wondering, the top 5 works accounted for 63.4% of the sale’s total. This sale goes to show you that good things happen if you are careful with the quality, freshness and estimate ranges.