PARIS.- The energy and excitement around the opening of Sotheby’s new flagship building in Paris lit up the saleroom today, as buyers from around the world participated in the first ever sales held in the building - ‘Modernités’ and Surrealism, presented in partnership with French couture house, CELINE. Together, they drove prices well beyond estimate and set significant new benchmarks for the Parisian art market.

Together, the two sales held at 83 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré today realised nearly €60m / $65m, exceeding the combined pre-sale high estimate. A major sale in a landmark year in the history of Surrealism, Sotheby’s ‘Surrealism and its Legacy’ sale was 100% sold. In that sale alone, works by Salvador Dalí, Kay Sage, Jane Graverol and František Muzika achieved the highest prices ever realised at auction in Paris for those artists.

Overarching Facts & Figures

• Combined sale total: €59.2m / $64.3m (est. €39 - 56m / $42.4 - 60.8m)

• 19 works sold for over €1m, with two lots achieving in excess of €5m

• Surrealist women artists capture the attention of collectors with many works selling for multiples of their estimates

• 6 artists set new records for their works sold at auction in Paris (see below)

• 10,000+ visitors attended preview exhibition

Surrealism and its Legacy

•Sale total: €23.1m / $25.1m (est. €14.3 - 20.8m / $15.5 - 22.5m)

• 100% sold, white glove sale

• 65% of lots sold achieved prices above their high estimate

Key Results:

• Salvador Dalí's Meditative Rose achieved €3.9m / $4.2m, almost 4x its high estimate (est. €700,000-1m)

• René Magritte's La Leçon de choses, once owned by Elton John, sold for €3.8m / $4.2m (est. €3.5-4.5m)

Strong results for women artists:

• Kay Sage’s Other answers made 3x its estimate, realising $1m / $1.1m (est. €300,000-500,000).

• Jane Graverol’s La Frôleuse, sold for €576,000 / $625,651 (est. £200,000-300,000)

• Dorothea Tanning’s My beautiful haunted house sold for €132,000 / $143,378, 3x its estimate (€40,000-60,000)

• Leonor Fini’s La Prima ballerina assoluta / La leçon de regard (Les leçons), sold for €360,000 / $391,032 (est. €150,000-200,000)

• Joan Miró’s Femmes doubled its estimate to achieve €2m / $2.2m (est €700,000-900,000)

• Man Ray’s Personnage (Femme assise) eclipsed its top estimate, selling for for €1.7m / $1.9m (est. €1-1.5m)

• František Muzika’s Larva VIII sold for 4x its top estimate, realising €240,000 / $260,688 (est. £40,000-60,000) - the highest price ever achieved for the artist at auction in France

Modernités

• Sale total: €36.1m / $39.2m (est. €24.8 - 35.2 / $26.9 - 38.3m)

• 90% sold by lot

Key Results:

• Jean Dubuffet’s Le Visiteur au Chapeau Bleu surpassed its high estimate to sell for €6.9m / $7.5m - the highest price ever achieved at auction in Paris for a work by the artist and the most valuable work sold at Sotheby’s Paris today

• A second work by Dubuffet, Francis Ponge Jubilation, achieved €6m / $6.5m (est. €5-7m)

• A newly-restituted painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Cariatides (from 1909), held in French national collections for decades and recently returned to the descendants of Grégoire Schusterman, soared beyond its €1-1.5m estimate to realise €1.92m / $2m - the second highest price ever achieved at auction in Paris for a work by the artist

• A rare ceramic sculpture by Lucio Fontana, Maschera, sold for three times its high estimate to bring €2.2m / $2.3m (est.€500,000-700,000) - the second highest price ever achieved for a ceramic by the artist, and the highest price achieved for a Fontana ceramic sold at auction in Paris

• A second ceramic sculpture by Fontana, carrying the same name and estimate, realised €1.9m

• Alighiero Boetti’s embroidered Mappa surpassed its high estimate to bring €1.9m / $2.1m (est. €1.4-1.8m)