A drawing bought on eBay for under $2,000 has been revealed as a work by Rene Magritte that is expected to auction for $150,000 next month.
The picture was purchased by $1,580 on the online auction site.
It’s a ballpoint pen, pencil and coloured pencil drawing that is typical of the Belgian artist who is one the best-known and most valuable surrealist artists.
The clouds and chess pieces clearly shown with rather shaky lines are typical Magritte themes.
Rene Magritte (1898-1967), made outlandish juxtapositions in his work, that were in turn juxtaposed with his own apparently mundane appearance .
The piece will be listed in Rago/Wright’s Post War & Contemporary Art sale on May 21.
It is believed to have come to eBay after it was sold by Mora Henskens. She was the companion of Harry Torczyner, a lawyer, who was a close friend of Rene Magritte and reportedly received the picture from Georgette, Magritte’s widow, after his 1967 death.
It left Hensken’s collection in 2022 when it was auctioned. Subsequently it was listed on eBay and bought for just over $1,500.
“This certainly isn’t an everyday thing in the auction world,” Joe Stanfield, senior specialist and fine art director at Rago/Wright told ARTNews. “It’s always exciting to help resurface unknown, and underknown, works from legendary artists—that our consignor found this Magritte on eBay just adds to the thrill.”
Rene Magritte’s work is hugely popular, with a cross-over appeal far outside the usual audience for modern, surrealist art.
Realistic and strange, Magritte’s Golconda, from 1953 is typical of his most popular style.
His paintings are often highly realistic pictures of unusual situations: rocks that float in the sky, bowler-hatted men raining from a clear, blue sky.
While his work tackled big questions of how we perceive the world, the artist presented himself as extremely conventional.
His work was not always popular during his lifetime, and he turned to forgery for a period to bring in money.
Today, select Magrittes from his most popular periods are extremely valuable.
Empire of Light set a record just last year. Image courtesy of Christie’s.
Last year, Empire of Light, one of his most reproduced images, sold for $121 million in New York.
This picture is going for a fraction of that, but it represents a huge return for its seller.
