Salvador Dalí Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
ARTIST Salvador Dalí
TITLE 'Printemps Nécrophilique'
AUCTION HOUSE Sotheby's
ESTIMATE $8 million to $12 million
Timing is everything in the auction business. So it’s no accident that this Surrealist canvas — once owned by Elsa Schiaparelli, a Paris couturier closely associated with the Surrealist movement and who collaborated with Dalí on designs — is being offered for sale just days before the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.”
From 1936, “Printemps Nécrophilique” is an eerie dreamscape with two figures that is also coming up for sale as the interest in Surrealism continues to escalate. “It’s one of the last great isms of art history to be fully appreciated,” said Simon Shaw, who runs Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art department in New York. “The roots of more recent art can be found in some of these Surrealist paintings, so it crosses over successfully, appealing to contemporary collectors too.”
The last time “Printemps Nécrophilique” was at auction, in London at Christie’s in 1998, it fetched $2.2 million.
