Sotheby's Paris will auction René Magritte's 1934 painting *La Magie Noire* 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 WWII resistance heroine Suzanne Spaak, who was executed by the Gestapo 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 and stone.
This sale matters because it brings to market a seminal Surrealist work that has never before been available to collectors, with a provenance tied to an extraordinary story of wartime heroism and patronage. The auction also reflects the surging market for Surrealist art, following Christie's record $121.2 million sale of Magritte's *L'empire des lumières* in 2024. The painting's history underscores the role of early supporters like the Spaak family in sustaining Magritte during a period when he sold no works for two years.