But Magritte insisted that his most famous work wasn’t about nonsense or nihilism: Ah, the famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it’s just a ...

A day after Sotheby’s tested the strength of the trophy market with its $65.5 million Claude Monet, rival Christie’s did one better—by auctioning off a $121.2 million René Magritte.

A René Magritte painting depicting an eerily lit streetscape sold for more than $121 million at a Christie’s auction in New York on Tuesday –– surpassing its $95 million estimate and ...