Magritte's Le retour leads Christie's surrealist auction

Christie's has announced that René Magritte's Le retour (1950) will be the highlight of its Art of Surreal Evening Sale on February 28, 2023, in London. The work, estimated at £4-6 million, returns to the market after 20 years. It depicts a swallow between sky and sea, a variation on Magritte's oiseau de ciel motif. An earlier version from 1940 is held at the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Brussels, and a later one, Le baiser (1951), is at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Magritte's market has been strong: Le mois des vendanges (1959) sold for £10 million at Christie's in 2021, and L'empire des lumières (1961) set a world auction record of £60 million at Sotheby's on March 2, 2022. Olivier Camu, head of Impressionist and Modern Art, and Ottavia Marchitelli, head of the Art of Surreal sale, called the work a universal symbol of hope. The gouache will tour New York, Hong Kong, and London before the auction.