Karpidas’s Sotheby’s Sale Marks a New Peak for Surrealism and Design

Once again, the market confirms the appetite for Surrealism in times of global uncertainty—its eerie resonance underscores the very contradictions of our civilization it once sought to expose. Yesterday (Sept. 17) at Sotheby’s London, collectors from around the world eagerly gathered to witness the trove of Pauline Karpidas going on the block; the single-owner sale achieved a white-glove finish at £73 million ($100 million). Cross-category bidding was fierce, with more than one work chased by at least seven contenders and 70 percent of the lots soaring past their high estimates. As expected, the sale secured its place as the most valuable single-owner auction ever staged in Europe.

“It has been a once-in-a-lifetime privilege for all of us at Sotheby’s to celebrate the extraordinary person and patron that Pauline Karpidas is,” said Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s chairman for Europe, whose long friendship with Karpidas was rooted in mutual admiration and a shared vision. “I have stood on this rostrum more times than I can count, but I know I will never forget the moment the final hammer fell—nor the electric energy that has filled our galleries over the past eight days.” In an interview with Observer earlier this year, Barker praised Karpidas’s collecting as driven purely by instinct and conviction rather than market fashions.

At the heart of the sale were 23 Surrealist masterpieces, which together realized £30.2 million ($41.1 million). “Surrealism caught Pauline’s attention early on,” explained Barker, “not just as an art movement, but as a way of seeing the world differently.” The collection hums with Surrealism’s signature tension—beauty sparring with drama, vulnerability shadowed by ferocity—surfacing through symbolic languages pulled from the subconscious. Karpidas became one of the movement’s most ardent supporters after being introduced by legendary dealer Alexander Iolas, who guided her toward acquiring some of its most visionary creators.

The star of the Surrealist trove, Magritte’s La Statue Volante, held in her collection for four decades and purchased through Iolas, eventually landed within its estimate, likely selling to its third-party guarantor for £10,120,000 ($13,762,188). Other Magritte works inspired more heated competition: Tête drew four bidders before selling for £914,400 ($1,243,493), nearly tripling its £300,000-500,000 estimate and setting a record for a plaster sculpture by the artist, while La Race Blanche matched its high estimate at £635,000 ($863,536) after a battle between five bidders. Francis Picabia." width="970" height="647" data-caption='René Magritte’s La Statue Volante with Salvador Dalí’s Cannibalisme des objets, tête de femme avec soulier (left) and Francis Picabia Deux Amies (right). Courtesy of Sotheby's'>

The night also rewrote several auction records. Hans Bellmer’s Milles Filles tripled expectations of £100,000-150,000, selling for £304,800 ($414,498) to an Asian collector after a six-bidder contest. One of the few surviving collaborative works by Max Ernst and his wife Marie-Berthe Aurenche also set a record, landing £533,400 ($725,371) near its top estimate.

Another highly anticipated lot, the otherworldly and richly symbolic The Hour of Angelus by Leonora Carrington, sold above its high estimate for £952,500 after fees—marking a stellar year for the artist, who has been at the forefront of renewed interest in Latin American Surrealists. According to the recently released Sotheby’s x ArtTactic Insight Report on Surrealism, the category saw remarkable growth between 2018 and 2024, achieving a compound annual growth rate of 22.8 percent—well above that of the overall market. Driving this surge are particularly women like Carrington and Leonor Fini: the market share for Latin American women Surrealists is estimated to have risen from 17.5 percent in 2018 to 86 percent in the first half of 2025.

Meanwhile, Dorothea Tanning’s Katchina and Her Soul sold to a collector in Asia for £889,000 ($1,208,951), more than doubling its £300,000-500,000 estimate after a six-bidder contest. The result further underscores the growing demand for long-overlooked female voices in the movement—or simply for aesthetics that tap into the oneiric and archetypal abysses of the individual and collective subconscious. The same Sotheby’s x ArtTactic report notes that auction sales for women Surrealists climbed from $7.9 million in 2018 to $94.3 million in 2024. Yves Tanguy displayed against a dark arched backdrop." width="970" height="647" data-caption="Giorgio de Chirico’s La Guerra (The War) (left) René Magritte’s Les Menottes de cuivre (middle) and Yves Tanguy’s Titre Inconnu (right).">

Among the highest prices ever achieved for a work by Yves Tanguy was the lunar landscape Titre Inconnu, which sold for £2,480,000 ($3,372,552), doubling its presale estimate. André Masson’s La Femme paralytique also achieved a significant result, selling for £1,077,000 ($1,464,612) after being chased by five bidders. The result more than doubled its £350,000-450,000 estimate and far surpassed the last price of £272,446 it fetched at auction in 1991.

Outside the Surrealist realm, other works exceeded expectations. Karpidas’s ominously dark Andy Warhol The Scream (After Munch) was pursued for ten minutes by at least six bidders, ultimately selling for £6,628,000 ($9,013,417)—marking the highest price ever for this subject by Warhol and several million more than its last auction result of £62,000 at Sotheby’s in 1996. That same energy extended to other Munch-inspired Warhols: Madonna and Self-Portrait with Skeleton’s Arm (After Munch) sold for £2,846,000 ($3,870,275), well above their combined high estimate and leagues beyond their previous auction price of £82,500 in 1990.

Strong results also came for standout design pieces in Karpidas’s collection, including Diego Giacometti’s Berceau Low Table, Première Version, which doubled its high estimate after being pursued by six bidders. The table ultimately sold for £508,000 on the phone with Helena Newman, worldwide head of Impressionist & Modern Art, underscoring how collectors are moving fluidly across categories—especially as the design market continues to prove its strength.

This market momentum for design was made even clearer by the string of Lalanne pieces that surpassed the million-pound mark. Among them, Claude Lalanne’s Unique Choupette—described by Barker as “an icon in its own right”—soared past its £300,000-400,000 estimate to fetch £1,870,000 after fees. Similarly, leaping from five-figure estimates to a seven-figure result, the richly ornamented Unique Structure Végétale mirror and wall light sold for £3,578,000 against its £350,000-450,000 estimate. The two Console Végétale works also delivered standout results, achieving £1,809,000 and £1,992,000, respectively. Meanwhile, the custom Unique Structure Végétale Bed brought in £889,000 (est. £200,000-300,000), the Unique Entrelacs Bench sold for £1,077,000 (est. £150,000-200,000), and the pair of Unique Crocodile Stools reached a stellar £977,900 from an original £180,000-250,000 estimate.

The marriage of glamour and kitsch in Jeff Koons’s Poodle drew eager bidding, doubling its estimate to sell for £2,358,000. Pablo Picasso’s Buste d’homme and Francis Picabia’s Deux amies likewise exceeded expectations, achieving £2,480,000 and £3,334,000, respectively.

Two more sales of works from the collection followed the standout evening auction: a 193-lot day sale today (Sept. 18), and a 97-lot online sale that closes September 19.

New buyers are fueling the Surrealism and design markets

According to the Sotheby’s x ArtTactic Insight Report, auction sales for Surrealism climbed from $726.1 million to $800.7 million between 2018 and 2024, with the genre’s share of the global art market nearly doubling from 9.3 percent to 16.8. Driving this growth are the most acclaimed Surrealist names, whose prices rose by 131.6 percent during that period, with an 8.8 percent compound annual growth rate—well above the broader art market.

Yet demand is also rising for what the report calls “contemporary surrealists”—a new generation of artists inspired by the movement. Sales in this group jumped 264.8 percent between 2018 and 2024, with much of the momentum centered on female surrealists. Sales for women in this category grew by 411.4 percent, lifting their market share to 15.9 percent—above the average for women in the broader art market.

Another striking data point from the report: while Baby Boomers and Gen X remain the dominant force behind the 100-year-old movement, Millennials and Gen Z are steadily expanding their presence. Gen X represented 43.2 percent of the bidder pool from 2018 through the first half of 2025, with its share rising from 40.0 percent in 2018 to 52.2 percent in the first half of this year. Millennials and Gen Z accounted for 15.2 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, with notable demand coming from Asia, which now represents 7.1 percent of the bidder base in this category.

Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z are also fueling the strength and global expansion of the design market. As one of our recent analyses revealed, June’s design sales across the big three auction houses posted a 62.3 percent year-on-year increase—evidence that the category isn’t just resilient but accelerating, with new money pushing it into higher orbit.

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