A stunning necklace designed by Salvador Dali took the spotlight at Sotheby’s record-breaking Surrealist and Modern art auction on Friday.
The title of this article is apt Whirlpool Sea Necklace18-karat gold is carved into an undulating ring studded with diamonds and a large cultured pearl. A halo of sapphire and emerald beads dangle from the ring. Together, these stones evoke the rising and crashing of waves against a golden shore.
It sold at Sotheby’s “Surrealism and Its Legacy” sale on October 24 for €736,600 ($858,500), twice its estimate of €300,000 to €500,000.
According to provenance published by Sotheby’s auction house, Dali was pregnant with Whirlpool Sea Necklace In 1954, its first owner was São Schlumberger, who acquired it in 1963, the same year it was acquired by the New York jeweler Alemany and Co., according to provenance published by Sotheby’s. São Schlumberger later married Pierre Schlumberger, a scion of an oil family, and became a frequent visitor to Dali, who painted her several times between 1963 and 1965.
In 2014, Sotheby’s acquired the art and jewelry collection of São and Pierre Schlumberger. The Dali necklace is offered for sale at an auction house for the first time as part of the Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale, with an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. Anne Schlumberger, one of Pierre’s five children from his first marriage, bought the house there for $665,000. She died in April and the necklace returned to Sotheby’s.
The auction house’s “Surrealism, Its Legacy and Modern Art” totaled 89.7 million euros ($104 million), setting a record for the highest auction total for Surrealism and modern art in France.
