A René Magritte painting breaks records, fetching over $121 million at New York auction

After a ten minute bidding-battle, a painting from Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" ("Empire of Light") series has sold for a record breaking $121 million.

The painting is known for its play on light and shadow, depicting the paradoxical image of a house at night, lit only by a street lamp, under a blue daytime sky.

The sale took place at Christie's in New York, with the $121 million sum being the highest price paid for a piece of surrealist art at auction. Magritte painted the work in 1957, but over the course of his career he produced 17 oil paintings and 10 gouaches that all share the name “L'empire des lumières”.

The sale also makes Magritte the 16th artist to break the $100 million threshold, according to data compiled by the French market analyst company Artprice.

Andy Warhol, Leonardo Da Vinci and Pablo Picasso (whose paintings have sold for more than $100 million at six auctions) feature among the other artists who have previously broken this record.

This work was issued from the collection of Romanian-American interior designer Mica Ertegun.

Magritte's early paintings, which date from about 1915, adopted an Impressionistic style. The painter went on the study at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

When the artist moved to Paris in the late 1920s he formed a friendship with French writer André Breton, with this also being the period in which he began his involvement in the Surrealist group.