NEW YORK, NY.- Rago/Wright announced landmark results from its May 14, 2026 dual auction offering, which achieved a combined total of $7,822,453—the highest in the firm’s history. The sale was headlined by a world auction record for Brazilian Surrealist sculptor Maria Martins, whose 1946 bronze Impossible sold for $3,170,000 — shattering the artist’s previous auction benchmark of $329,000 and announcing her rightful place among the great sculptors of the twentieth century.
The result, achieved against a pre-sale estimate of $150,000–200,000, represents one of the most dramatic auction revaluations in recent memory for a modernist master, and stands as a defining moment in the critical and market reassessment of Surrealism’s overlooked voices.
A LANDMARK WORK, A LANDMARK RESULT
Believed to be the earliest of three known casts, Impossible was created during Martins’s pivotal New York period and exemplifies her synthesis of Surrealist biomorphism with the mythologies and natural imagery of the Amazon. The sculpture’s hybrid, sensuous forms—part human, part vegetal, part animal—speak to themes of transformation and desire that define her work at its most powerful. The work also reflects Martins’s celebrated artistic dialogue with Marcel Duchamp, widely understood as one of the most generative relationships in the Surrealist movement.
“Major works by Maria Martins of this scale and importance almost never come to market. Today’s result is not a surprise to those who know her work—it is a correction. The market has finally recognized what art history has always known: that Maria Martins belongs in the first rank of twentieth-century sculpture.” —Lauren Bradley, Fine Art Director, Rago/Wright
RECORD TOTALS ACROSS BOTH SALES
The Post War & Contemporary Art auction totaled $7,445,708 with buyer’s premium, driven by exceptional results across painting, works on paper, and sculpture. Beyond the Martins record, top results included Sam Gilliam’s 1970 Sun Woman at $409,600; Miyoko Ito’s Adam and Eve (1957) at $281,600; Annie Morris’s Stack 7 (Ultramarine Blue) at $268,800; Barry X Ball’s Purity at $217,600; Joan Miró’s Tête at $96,000; George Rodrigue’s Twin City Lights at $79,800; and Donald Roller Wilson’s Naughty at $38,400. The complete results are available at www.ragoarts.com/auctions/2026/05/post-war-contemporary-art.
Immediately preceding, Pure Edge: American Geometric Abstraction, Selected Works from the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires achieved $376,745 with buyer’s premium, offering collectors a rare opportunity to acquire works from one of South America’s foremost institutional collections of American geometric abstraction.
“These results reflect the depth and ambition of what we brought to market, and the confidence of collectors in Rago/Wright’s scholarship and presentation. The combination of a world record for a Surrealist master, exceptional post-war painting, and a museum-provenance collection of geometric abstraction in a single day is a statement about where this firm is headed —Meredith Hilferty, Fine Art Director, Rago/Wright
A MILESTONE FOR THE FIRM
At $7,822,453 combined, the May 14th sales represent the highest single-day auction total in Rago/Wright’s history, a milestone the firm attributes to years of investment in scholarship, curatorial rigor, and deep relationships with collectors and institutions.
“Today was a milestone by every measure—a world auction record, our highest-ever sale total, and a moment that will be remembered in the history of Surrealist sculpture. At Rago/Wright, we have always believed that the market catches up to art history eventually. Today, it did.” —Richard Wright, CEO, Rago/Wright
