Leonora Carrington painting smashes artist’s auction record, fetching $28.5 million at Sotheby’s.

Sotheby’s modern auction in New York last night totaled $235.1 million, nearing the top end of the pre-sale estimate of $180.9 million to $250.7 million (all figures include fees). Amid bidding wars and several record-breaking sales, the sale saw 96% of lots sold, with eight works hammering above $10 million each.

After a tense 10-minute bidding war, Leonora Carrington’s Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945) sold for a record-breaking $28.5 million, well above its estimated $12 million–$18 million, smashing her previous record of $3.3 million set at Sotheby’s in 2022 and making her the most valuable British-born woman artist at auction. This new record sale places Carrington among the top five most valuable women artists at auction, joined by Louise Bourgeois, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Joan Mitchell. Moreover, she places among the top four Surrealists at auction, surpassing Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí.

The bidding war came to a close after Eduardo F. Costantini, a renowned collector and founder of Malba, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires–Fundación Costantini, made the final $28.5 million offer.

Surrealist women artists dominated the evening auction, with several sales achieving prices above their estimate. Carrington’s Who art thou, White Face (1959) sold for $2.5 million, hitting its high estimate. Remedios Varo’s Esquiador (Viajero) (1960) and Leonor Fini’s Le Train (1975) also sold above their high estimates for $4.2 million and $445,000, respectively. This brought the three Surrealists’ total to $35.6 million, more than doubling their combined low estimate of $15 million.

Other key sales from Sotheby’s modern auction:

• René Magritte’s Le Banquet (1952), one of only four paintings from Magritte’s “Le Banquet” series created in the late 1950s, sold for $18.1 million.
• Claude Monet’s Meules à Giverny (1893) sold for $34.8 million. It was contested by three bidders for eight minutes before selling on the phone to Jen Hua, deputy chairman for Sotheby’s Asia.
• Alexander Calder’s Blue Moon (1962)—at 25 feet long, the largest Calder mobile to ever appear at auction—sold for $14.4 million.
• Édouard Manet’s Vase de fleurs, roses et lilas (1882) sold for $10.1 million.
• Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s Relief rectangulaire, cercles découpés, carrés peints et découpés, cubes et cylindres surgissants (1938) sold for $889,000.