Salvador Dalí’s Surrealist Necklace Smashes Presale Estimates at Auction
The Swirling Sea Necklace, commissioned by São Schlumberger, is meant to evoke a tide washing over a sandy shore
A surrealist masterpiece by Salvador Dalí smashed presale estimates at a record-breaking auction hosted by Sotheby’s last week. The Swirling Sea Necklace, featuring Dalí’s design and executed by jeweler Carlos Alemany, is meant to evoke a tide washing over a sandy shore with pearls, emeralds, diamonds, and sapphires. The piece was originally commissioned by Madame São Schlumberger shortly after her marriage to Pierre Schlumberger, Anne Schlumberger’s father. The piece, made with 18K gold, is inscribed with Dalí on the clasp.
As part of “The Schlumberger Collection,” which was included in the auction house’s “Surrealism and Its Legacy” sale, it was estimated to achieve between $350,000-581,000. The necklace sparked strong bidding that eventually landed on a sale price of over $857,000.
“Like Dalí, Madame São Schlumberger had a distinct taste for the lavish and avant-garde,” according to the auction house. “So, it was no surprise that shortly after her marriage to Pierre Schlumberger, a scion of the multinational energy conglomerate, she commissioned Dalí to paint her portrait, sitting for him numerous times between 1963 and 1965. He personally picked out the gown in which she was depicted in for her portrait, pairing it with one of his bespoke creations: the present work, Swirling Sea Necklace.”
Additional notable pieces featured in “The Schlumberger Collection” sale included works by Francois-Xavier Lalanne, Claude Lalanne, and Claude Monet.