René Magritte (1898–1967), *Salle des lutteurs* (*The Wrestlers' Room*), 2010

Lithograph on 100% cotton BFK Rives paper, 45 x 60 cm (inside the mat), mounted in a frame measuring 60 x 75
Signature on the plate: Magritte
Numbered in pencil on the lower right: 63/275
Signed in pencil on the right by Charly Herscovici—President of the Magritte Estate Foundation and Chairman of the MAGRITTE Museum in Brussels
Dry stamps: Magritte Estate and ADAGP (Société des Auteurs dans les Arts Graphiques et Plastiques—Association of Authors in the Graphic and Plastic Arts)
An exclusive, limited edition of 275 numbered pieces and 45 non-commercial proof copies, marked HC (Hors d’commerce – not for sale) and numbered from 1 to 45, including 15 reserved for the MAGRITTE Estate.
René Magritte was an artist with an extraordinary talent for blurring the boundaries between the real and the impossible. His genius lay in his ability to surprise the viewer and compel them to think about the surrounding world in a completely new way.
Magritte did not shock with his painting technique—on the contrary, he often used a realistic, almost academic style. The magic lay entirely in the juxtaposition of seemingly ordinary objects in extraordinary configurations. When he painted a rock floating in the air, a rose filling a room, or figures with their faces covered, he created visual paradoxes that lingered in the memory for a long time.
René Magritte’s work, titled “Salle des lutteurs” or “Le Tombeau des lutteurs,” which can be translated as “The Wrestlers’ Room” or “The Tomb of the Wrestlers,” is a fascinating example of the artist’s Surrealist painting. A rose, a symbol of beauty and sensuality, fills the entire room, creating a claustrophobic yet powerful presence. The flower’s disproportionate size relative to the room and the window is a classic Surrealist technique designed to shatter our normal perception of reality. The title “The Wrestlers’ Room” may be intentionally misleading to emphasize the arbitrariness of naming things and to show that reality is more complex than it seems. The wrestlers are not visible, but the title evokes them. This may suggest that certain things are present, even if they are invisible. René Magritte’s works fetch very high prices on the art market, particularly at auctions. He is one of the most recognizable and highly regarded Surrealist artists of the 20th century, and his works are in tremendous demand among collectors.
In November 2024, Magritte’s 1954 painting “L’empire des lumières” (The Empire of Lights) from 1954 was sold at Christie’s auction house in New York for a staggering $121.2 million.