L'empire des Lumires,Ren Magritte, 1954 Christie's Images LTD. 2024A 1954 painting by Ren Magritte, Lempire des lumires,has just sold for $121.2 million. The painting surpassed its $95 million estimate at Christies New York this week, making it the first Magritte work ever to sell for nine figures.Magritte is known for his Surrealist style, often placing everyday objects or figures in strange scenes and scenarios.Lempire des lumires depicts a house near a pond, enveloped in the dark of night with only a street lamp and interior windows illuminating it. The treetops above the house, untouched by the light, are entirely black. However, the sky above the house is bright blue and filled with fluffy white clouds, as if it were the middle of the day.In 1966, Magritte explained the concept, per Christies:After I had painted Lempire des lumires, I got the idea that night and day exist together, that they are one. This is reasonable, or at the very least its in keeping with our knowledge: in the world night always exists at the same time as day. (Just as sadness always exists in some people at the same time as happiness in others.) But such ideas are not poetic. What is poetic is the visible image of the picture.The artist became somewhat fixated on this idea. He created 27 different versions of Lempire des lumires, and each shows the same scene: a dark house (or houses) with a bright blue sky above.The high price of this sale comes at a time when many have been fretting over a sluggish global art market. Artnets Katya Kazakinareports thattwo telephone bidders went head-to-head via Christies staffers Alex Rotter and Xin Li-Cohen.You could have heard a pin drop, Kazakina reports. Almost ten minutes into the proceeding, Rotter was on top with a $105 million bid, and Li-Cohen signaled that her client was bowing out. The room erupted in applause. The buyers premium brought the total to $121.2 million.Brett Gorvy, a founder of the art galleryLvy Gorvy Dayan, tells the New York Times Scott Reyburn that the large number could be influenced by the current political climate.The election has definitely had an immediate impact on the marketplace, Gorvy says. The stock market has made people richer. We saw in our gallery the day after the election that deals were done by clients who had hesitated before.But, Gorvy notes, it could be a honeymoon period.Two other Magritte works went up for sale at the auction. Those paintings,La cour damour(1960) and La Mmoire(1945), sold for $10.53 million and $3.68 million respectively. The impressive number forLempire des lumires stole the show and further cemented Magrittes legacy as a painter.The motif is one of the few truly iconic images in 20th-century art, Max Carter, Christies vice chairman of 20th- to 21st-century art, tells CNNs Karina Tsui.Carter adds, When icons appear on the market, they create their own market dynamic.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Artists, Auctions, Painters, Painting, Surrealism