The sale of the Zaira & Marsel Mis Collection at Sotheby’s France attracted a packed saleroom, with 30 phone lines a-crackle with bids from around the world, Art Daily reported.

The sale got off to an explosive start with a series of works from key periods of the career of the great Belgian Surrealist René Magritte. Leading the way was his extraordinary La Grande Table (c.1962/3), a mature work that offers a marvelous variation on one of his favorite themes – the apple. At €5,104,750 ($6.595.490), the painting set a new record price for René Magritte in France.

La Parure de l’Orage (1927), to be shown in the exhibition Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary 1926-1938 at the New York MoMA next year (and at The Art Institute of Chicago in 2014), soared to €1,464,750 ($1,892,501) (est. €1-1.5m*).

Andy Warhol’s Four Multicoloured Marilyns (Reversal Series), revisiting his iconic Marilyn portrait in the late 1970s, posted the evening’s second-highest price of €3,200,750 ($4,135,465) (est. €1.5-2m). The work saw Warhol underline his tremendous creativity by confronting his artistic past – emerging as a pioneer of Post-Modernism, and paving the way for Jeff Koons.