History Books

PARIS—Penned in 1924 in dark blue ink on 21 numbered sheets of foolscap, the original manuscript of André Breton’s historic Manifeste du Surréalisme—in which he called for a “return to the origins of poetic imagination” involving a “new linguistic universe” fired by dream, madness, chance, freedom and fear—is to appear at auction for the first time at Sotheby’s Paris on May 21 (est. €300–500,000; $460,800–768,000). It was consigned by the descendants of Breton’s first wife, Simone (they married in 1921 and divorced in 1931). The sale also includes the 59-page manuscript of Breton’s Poisson soluble (est. €200–300,000; $307,200–460,800)—to which the manifesto originally served as a preface—and seven notebooks (est. €20–80,000 each; $30,700–122,900) containing drafts of the text, throughout which 12 “collage-poems,” made from newspaper cuttings, appear.

"History Books" originally appeared in the May 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's May 2008 Table of Contents.