Surrealism – a record year

Surrealist art works are posting record prices. Stimulated by the sale of the Breton collection in April 2003 (Calmels-Cohen, Paris) and then by the André Lefevre collection in December 2007 (Aguttes, Paris), prices in the segment are reaching new peaks, having progressed another 21% over the first 9 months of this year. Over 10 years, the movement’s price index has gained 214%.

This year surrealism has enjoyed a high media profile with the auction of the “Manifesto of Surrealism” manuscript written in 1924 by the French author André Breton. The Manifesto was sold off in a lot of 9 manuscripts acquired by the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts for a total of €3.2m at Sotheby’s Paris on 21 May. At the same time, a number of new records for surrealist paintings and photographs have been set throughout the year. On the paintings side, the absolute record was set by Joan Miro’s La caresse des étoiles (1938) when it fetched $15.2m at Christie’s New York on 6 May 2008. In November 2004, the same painting sold for $10.5m at the same auctioneer! Among the recent records posted since the beginning of the year, we note the £1.3m paid for Oscar Dominguez’ Machine à coudre electro-sexuelle 1 on 24 June and the $850,000 paid for Victor Brauner’s Ultratableau Biosensible. Joseph Sima also set a new record with the equivalent of €186,000 for Lieu de l’absence at Art Consulting Brno (Prague).

In a lower price range, other new records have been set since the start of the year for photographs by Hans Bellmer, Pierre Molinier and Claude Cahun. Still relatively unknown 10 years ago, Claude Cahun’s prices are today approaching those commanded by Brassaï! In fact, on 28 May 2008 a Claude Cahun silvered print entitled the Hands – estimated at between 4 and 6 thousand euros – went under the hammer for €33,000 (Drouot estimations, Paris)… while on 21 May 2008, un photo-montage of fours pairs of fetishised legs by Pierre Molinier (who was also a painter: one would expect to pay between 30 and 90 thousand euros for one of his better paintings) fetched €13,500 at Sotheby’s in Paris.
However, the highest price paid for a surrealist photograph in 2008 concerned Hans Bellmer’s La poupée. Released from the Quillan Collection, it fetched $260,000 at Sotheby’s. This sum topped his previous record at the famous Breton sale in 2003 by $60,000.
In fact, this year it seems the best works from the surrealism movement would have continued on an inflationary price path even without any major event or sale to stimulate the market.