Leonora Carrington, the British-born Surrealist artist, has seen a dramatic revival of interest in her work, with her paintings breaking auction records and her sculptures gaining new attention. However, a bitter dispute has emerged between supporters of her later bronzes and critics questioning their legitimacy, complicating her legacy. Carrington lived most of her life in Mexico and died in 2011 at age 94, but her reputation has soared posthumously, marked by a 2015 retrospective at Tate Liverpool, her influence on the 2022 Venice Biennale, and a current retrospective traveling from Palazzo Reale in Milan to Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. Her painting *Les Distractions de Dagobert* (1945) sold for $28.5 million at Sotheby’s New York in May 2024, setting a record for a British-born female artist, while her wooden sculpture *La Grande Dame (The Cat Woman)* (1951) fetched over $11.4 million in November 2024.
This controversy matters because it raises broader questions about how Carrington’s legacy should be preserved and presented, particularly regarding her later sculptural works. The debate highlights tensions between market demand and authenticity, as well as the challenges of managing an artist’s posthumous reputation. Carrington’s story also underscores the ongoing reevaluation of overlooked historical women artists, with her unique Surrealist vision now receiving institutional and commercial validation. The outcome of this dispute could influence how other artists’ late-career or collaborative works are handled by the art world.