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Christie's London will auction a major collection of modern and contemporary art from Belgian collectors Roger and Josette Vanthournout during its March marquee sales week. The collection, estimated at £40 million ($53.8 million), spans six decades of collecting and includes works by René Magritte, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Yayoi Kusama, Lucio Fontana, Agnes Martin, and Max Ernst. It will be offered across three sales: a March 5 evening sale, a March 6 daytime sale, and an online sale from February 25 to March 12. Highlights include Magritte's 'La plaine de l'air' (1940) and Moore's 'Goslar Warrior' (1973–74), each estimated at £3.5–5.5 million.

Estonia exports a modernist, Glasgow gets poetic and Leonora Carrington goes wild – the week in art

The article is a weekly roundup of art events and news highlights. It spotlights several upcoming exhibitions, including a showcase of Estonian modernist Konrad Mägi in London, a poetic conceptual art show by Fiona Banner in Glasgow, lyrical paintings by Turner Prize-shortlisted Hurvin Anderson at Tate Britain, and a surrealist exhibition of Leonora Carrington's work at London's Freud Museum. It also mentions films by Rehana Zaman and features an image story about a unique, family-run trompe l'oeil painting school in Brussels.

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Galerie 1900-2000, a Parisian gallery specializing in Dada and Surrealism, has closed its New York branch on Madison Avenue, which opened in February 2023 as a joint venture with Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois. The Manhattan outpost's last exhibition ended in September, with principal David Fleiss citing a slow market during difficult global times as the reason for the closure, though he did not rule out a future return to New York.

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Arthur “Art” Green, a key Chicago Imagist painter and original member of the Hairy Who, died at age 83 in April. The news was announced by Garth Greenan Gallery in New York, which represented him. Green rose to prominence in the mid-1960s alongside five fellow School of the Art Institute of Chicago graduates, exhibiting together as the Hairy Who from 1966 to 1969. Their work offered a humorous, hallucinatory take on American culture, blending Surrealism, Art Brut, and advertising conventions. Green developed a rich personal iconography featuring ice cream cones, wood grain, flames, and fingernails, and taught for decades, influencing a generation of artists.

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Frida Kahlo's 1940 self-portrait *El sueño (La cama)* sold for $54.7 million at Sotheby's New York on November 20, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of $40–60 million. The painting, consigned by the estate of Selma Ertegun, was won by a phone bidder handled by Sotheby's senior vice president Anna Di Stasi. The sale broke Kahlo's previous auction record of $34.9 million set in 2021 for *Diego y yo*, as well as the record for a Latin American artwork and the overall record for a work by a woman artist at auction, surpassing Georgia O'Keeffe's $44.4 million *Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1*.

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Dan Nadel, a critic known for championing overlooked American artists, has been appointed curator of drawings and prints at the Whitney Museum in New York. His appointment comes ahead of the opening of his upcoming Whitney exhibition “Sixties Surreal,” which will explore Surrealism’s impact on American art from 1958 to 1972. Nadel previously organized acclaimed shows at Karma gallery, including a pivotal 2018 exhibition of Gertrude Abercrombie, and has held curatorial roles at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. The Whitney also announced the appointments of Jennie Goldstein as curator of the collection and Roxanne Smith as assistant curator of the collection.

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Sotheby's has announced the headline lots for the upcoming sale of British socialite and arts patron Pauline Karpidas's collection, set to take place September 17–19 in London. The 250-item auction, described as the 'greatest collection of Surrealism to emerge in recent history,' is led by René Magritte's oil painting *La Statue volante* (1940-41), estimated at £9–12 million ($12–16 million). Other highlights include ten more Magritte works, four Andy Warhol pieces from his 'Art from Art' series, and works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Leonora Carrington, along with furniture and design objects.

sothebys london to sell greatest collection of surrealism to emerge in recent history in september 1234744885

Sotheby's London will auction the collection of British socialite, collector, and arts patron Pauline Karpidas on September 17 and 18. Described as the 'greatest collection of Surrealism to emerge in recent history,' it includes masterpieces by René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, Leonora Carrington, and Max Ernst, along with works by Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and others. The sale is expected to fetch £60 million ($81 million), the highest estimate ever placed on a single collection at Sotheby's in Europe. Karpidas, who began collecting 50 years ago after meeting gallerist Alexander Iolas, views herself as a 'temporary custodian' for the artworks.

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In September 1945, exiled Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington completed her masterpiece *Les Distractions de Dagobert* (also known as *The Pleasures of Dagobert*), a densely layered canvas teeming with mythical figures, ritual fires, and medieval references. The painting, loosely inspired by the 7th-century Merovingian king Dagobert, depicts the monarch in a red robe on a cow-headed cart surrounded by enigmatic scenes. After a fierce 10-minute bidding war at Sotheby’s New York in May 2024, the work sold for $28.5 million to Argentine collector Eduardo F. Costantini, shattering Carrington’s previous auction record of $3.3 million. The painting is now on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of the exhibition “Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100,” the show’s only North American stop.

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The article profiles Bona de Mandiargues, an overlooked Italian Surrealist artist whose work is finally gaining international recognition. Her major debut occurred at the 2024 Venice Biennale, and her first U.K. solo show is now on view at Alison Jacques gallery in London through June 28. The exhibition focuses on her mature period (1975–1995), featuring dark, erotic, and occult-inspired collages and assemblages that challenge gender norms.

What We Miss When We Talk About Giacometti

This article explores a critical reevaluation of Alberto Giacometti’s career, specifically focusing on the decade between 1935 and 1945. While Giacometti is globally recognized for his spindly, post-war 'Existentialist' figures, art historian Joanna Fiduccia’s new book, *Figures of Crisis*, argues that his mid-career departure from Surrealism to study human likeness was not a mere transition but a profound response to the political crises and nationalism of interwar France.

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Christie’s announced a projected sales total of $2.1 billion for the first half of 2025, matching its H1-2024 figure. While art categories like Impressionist, modern, and Old Masters saw modest growth—Old Masters sales rose 15% to $55 million—luxury categories (handbags, watches, cars, jewelry) surged nearly 30% to $468 million, now accounting for 22% of the total. Notable sales included René Magritte’s *La reconnaissance infinite* (1933) for £10.3 million and Piet Mondrian’s *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Grey, Yellow, Black, and Blue* (1922) for $46.7 million. Guaranteed lots remained low at 1.5%, and the sell-through rate held steady at 88%.

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Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the theft of Napoleonic jewels from the Louvre on October 19, including pieces once owned by Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie. French authorities detained one man at Charles de Gaulle Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Algeria, and both suspects are in their 30s from the Seine-Saint-Denis area. A newly surfaced video allegedly shows the thieves escaping with $102 million worth of jewelry via a furniture lift; eight artifacts remain missing. Separately, Sotheby's Paris achieved record-breaking totals for Surrealist and modern art auctions during Art Basel Paris, with a Modigliani painting selling for €27 million, the most expensive work ever sold by Sotheby's in France.

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A René Magritte painting, *La Magie Noire* (1934), will be auctioned at Sotheby’s Paris on October 24 with a high estimate of €7 million ($8.1 million). The work has remained in the same private collection for nearly a century, having been acquired directly from the artist by the family of World War II resistance heroine Suzanne Spaak, who was executed by the Gestapo in 1944 for helping Jewish children escape Nazi persecution. The painting depicts Magritte’s wife, Georgette Berger, and is the first of ten portraits in which the female body merges with sky, stone, and spirit.

Remembering Desmond Morris, James Hayward, and Flo Oy Wong

This week's obituaries mark the passing of several significant figures in the visual arts. They include British surrealist painter and zoologist Desmond Morris, known for his 'biomorph' paintings and experiments with chimpanzee art; West Coast monochrome abstractionist James Hayward, who developed a cult following for his thickly painted canvases; and Chinese American artist Flo Oy Wong, a foundational storyteller of Oakland's Chinatown and the Asian American experience. Also remembered are assemblage artist Aldwyth, Ethiopian painter and educator Behailu Bezabih, Anglo-Irish conservator and designer Alec Cobbe, Bangladeshi art director Tarun Ghosh, and New Mexico painter Michael Hurd.

How Latin American Artists Have Harnessed the Allure of Alchemy

A new exhibition titled “Constellations and Drifts: Art from Latin America in the FEMSA Collection” has opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Monterrey (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey) in Mexico, running through August 9, 2026. The show features 170 works by 115 Latin American artists from the FEMSA Collection, one of the most prestigious corporate collections of Latin American art, and is organized around five curatorial themes or “constellations,” including a section centered on alchemy. Highlights include works by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Francis Alÿs, and a new commission by Argentine artist Ad Minoliti, alongside Surrealist pieces by Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington, and Kati Horna.

Pedro Friedeberg, key figure in Mexican art renowned for hand-shaped chair, has died at age 90

Pedro Friedeberg, the Mexico-based artist and designer famed for his iconic Mano Silla (Hand Chair) created in 1962, has died at age 90. A key figure in 20th-century Mexican art, his singular work blended intricate, fantastical architecture with ornament and irony, creating a unique visual universe that defied easy categorization within movements like Surrealism or geometric abstraction.

Our 5 Favorite Gallery Exhibitions to See This Spring in Paris

Nos 5 expos coups de cœur à voir en galeries ce printemps à Paris

Paris is experiencing a vibrant gallery season this spring, marked by the arrival of major international players and the rediscovery of overlooked artists. Highlights include the opening of Singapore’s Cuturi Gallery at the Palais-Royal with a cross-disciplinary show on decadence, and the London-based Waddington Custot establishing a new space in Saint-Germain-des-Prés with an exhibition bridging Nabis masters and contemporary painters. Other notable shows include a first-ever public look at the surrealist collages of Roland Sig and a dialogue between neo-impressionism and contemporary art at Galerie Pavec.

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Independent 20th Century art fair has announced that its 2026 edition will be hosted by Sotheby’s at the auction house’s new flagship headquarters in Manhattan’s historic Breuer building. The move, first reported by the New York Times, marks a significant expansion for the fair and an unprecedented collaboration between an art fair and an auction house in the modern art market. Founded in 2022, Independent 20th Century focuses on overlooked and celebrated artists of the last century, with curatorial programming that reframes movements from women in Surrealism to Arab Modernism. The Breuer—a landmark of Modernist architecture designed by Marcel Breuer and recently renovated by Herzog & de Meuron with PBDW Architects—will allow the fair to grow to more than 50 galleries, up from 31 at its most recent edition.

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The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has opened a major retrospective of Afro-Cuban Surrealist painter Wifredo Lam, featuring over 200 works. The exhibition highlights Lam's masterpiece *Grande Composition* (1949), a 14-foot-wide painting recently acquired by MoMA after years of negotiation with a Paris collector. Curated by MoMA's new director Christophe Cherix and Beverly Adams, the show reexamines Lam's career, emphasizing his Afro-Cuban heritage and his use of hybrid figures like the femme-cheval, which reference Lucumí spiritual traditions.

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Sylvio Perlstein, the legendary art collector, patron, and impresario, died on August 6. Hauser & Wirth confirmed the news, calling him a visionary who shaped one of the most important art collections of the past century. In 2018, the gallery exhibited 380 pieces from his collection across its Chelsea and Hong Kong locations in the show 'The Sylvio Perlstein Collection – A Luta Continua'. Perlstein was born in Belgium in the 1930s, fled to Brazil with his family during World War II, and later joined the diamond business in Antwerp. His collection spanned Dada, Surrealism, American minimalism, and Land art, featuring works by Man Ray, René Magritte, Donald Judd, and many others. He maintained close friendships with artists and displayed works throughout his Paris home, which cultural critic Arthur Lubow described as 'a contemporary version of Ali Baba's cave'.

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The Museum of Modern Art in New York is presenting the exhibition "Wifredo Lam: When I Don't Sleep, I Dream," featuring the iconic Cuban Surrealist painter. The show includes his seminal work *The Jungle*, acquired by MoMA in 1946, and explores his complex artistic identity.

Zurbarán review – ecstatic visions, primitive surrealism … and the finest loincloths ever painted

The Guardian reviews a major exhibition of 17th-century Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán, highlighting his visionary and surrealist qualities. The show features works such as "The Apparition of Saint Peter to Saint Peter Nolasco" (1629), newly attributed paintings including a giant mask, and iconic pieces like "The Crucified Christ" and "Saint Serapion," all drawn from collections including the Prado and the National Gallery, London. The review emphasizes Zurbarán's ability to paint supernatural subjects with naturalistic conviction, his exquisite rendering of fabrics—especially loincloths—and his influence on modern artists like Salvador Dalí.

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Ariana Papademetropoulos has debuted a new solo exhibition titled "Glass Slipper" at Thaddaeus Ropac’s gallery in Paris. The show features a diverse range of works, including hyper-realistic paintings of dry-cleaned dresses, surrealist landscapes featuring floating chairs, and a central immersive installation. This centerpiece consists of a mattress and a fish tank filled with 150 kissing fish, accompanied by a commissioned ambient soundtrack by Nicolas Godin of the band Air, designed to evoke a meditative, ritualistic experience.

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London's The Gallery of Everything is presenting the first survey of Haitian painter Hector Hyppolite in a European commercial setting at Art Basel Paris, opening October 24. The solo booth in the fair's Premise sector features works by Hyppolite, including three pieces from the historic 1947 exhibition "Le Surréalisme en 1947," along with documentation, photos, and an essay by Manthia Diawara and Terri Geis. Hyppolite, a self-taught vodou priest who died in 1948, was championed by Surrealist founder André Breton after Breton encountered his work in Haiti in 1945.

les lalanne mania drives big results at sothebys karpidas sale 1234752622

Sotheby's London sale of British socialite and arts patron Pauline Karpidas's collection shattered its $53 million high estimate, totaling $100 million on Wednesday evening. Nine works by artist-designer couple François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne (known as Les Lalanne) achieved $18.5 million, more than five times their combined high estimate of $3.5 million, contributing nearly 20% of the total. The top result was Claude Lalanne's Structure végétale mirror and wall light, which sold for $4.8 million against a $615,000 high estimate. Additional Lalanne works in a day sale and online auction also performed strongly, with jewelry and furniture pieces far exceeding expectations.

Death of Artist Fabien Verschaere

Disparition de l’artiste Fabien Verschaere

The French contemporary art world is mourning the sudden death of artist Fabien Verschaere at the age of 50. Represented by Galerie Brugier-Rigail since 2012, Verschaere was known for a prolific and singular body of work that blended childhood imagery, fairy tales, and pop culture icons like Mickey Mouse and Batman into a complex personal mythology. His career was marked by significant exhibitions at major institutions including the Palais de Tokyo, the Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, and the Grand Palais.

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Galerie Michael Haas in Berlin is presenting "André Thomkins: Lackskins," a focused exhibition on the Swiss artist's experimental technique developed in the 1950s. Thomkins (1930–1985) created these works by dripping varnish onto water and transferring the floating pigment to paper, a process blending controlled manipulation with chance. The show, running through March 6, 2026, highlights a body of work rediscovered only in the last 15 years, including pieces like "Astronauten" (1962).

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Marisa Adesman, a rising artist based in Chicago, is presenting her solo exhibition “Under the Rose” at Anat Ebgi in New York, featuring six new paintings that blend trompe l’oeil and surrealism to create nocturnal interior scenes of magic, eroticism, and domestic disobedience. The show follows her Los Angeles debut “Forklore” in 2021 and her first museum exhibition at KMAC Contemporary Art Museum in 2023, where her painting sold for $90,000 at Art Basel Miami.

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The article profiles Lucia Wilcox, a nearly forgotten Surrealist painter born in 1899 who lived an extraordinary life—raised in Beirut, partying with Surrealists in Paris, fleeing to New York in 1938, and becoming a doyenne among expatriate artists in the Hamptons. She painted joyful, mythical women and was shown by major dealers Sidney Janis and Leo Castelli, but after her death in 1974 she faded into obscurity. Now, a tightly curated exhibition titled "Lucia Wilcox: LUCIA" at Berry Campbell in New York (through June 28) reintroduces her work, focusing on over 20 paintings from the 1940s, including the vibrant "Untitled (Jungle)" (1944).