Paris – Following the outstanding results of the "100 years of Surrealism" sale in Paris last year, Bonhams is delighted to host a sale dedicated to Surrealism on Wednesday 30 April 2025 in Paris.

Executed circa 1932, Salaganes by Francis Picabia from an important private collection will lead the sale with an estimate of €150,000 - 200,000. The sale includes paintings and works on paper by French, Belgian and Italian Masters including Salvador Dali, Leonor Fini, Jane Graverol, Valentine Hugo, André Masson, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, René Magritte, Giorgio di Chirico, and many others.

Emilie Millon, Head of Bonhams' Impressionist & Modern Art department in Paris, commented: "For the third year running, Bonhams celebrates the enthralling world of Surrealism with a dedicated spring auction in Paris. The sale will feature works by many of the most innovative and leading figures of Surrealism, from Francis Picabia to Man Ray, showcasing the movement's impact and legacy."

Following his break with the Parisian avant-garde in 1924, Francis Picabia (1897-1953) moved to the French Riviera in the South of France, soon thereafter beginning to work on his radical Transparencies paintings. The creation years of the Transparencies can be split into two stages: an earlier phase starting from 1927 – many of Picabia's paintings produced during this period were exhibited at the Galerie Théophile Briant in Paris – and a later phase that began in 1929 and lasted up to around 1933.

Picabia's Transparencies series, with fractured portraits and interlacing imagery, is embedded with both ambiguity and intrigue. With no set narrative or allegorical subject, the series is one of the artist's most enigmatic bodies of work. In Salaganes, Picabia mixes multiple subjects into one ambiguous scene, combining imagery of men's faces with a vast seascape.

Other highlights of the sale include:

• Please do not disturb by MAN RAY (1890-1976) is a 1967 unique work made of printed card, string and magnets on a metal sheet in the artist's frame. It comes from an Italian private collection and has been exhibited in 1971 in a travelling exhibition in Milano, Rotterdam and Paris. (estimate : €120,000-180,000)

• Sun Over the Sea by MAX ERNST (1891-1976) is a rare work in gouache and pencil on paper, executed in 1928 (estimate: €80,000-120,000). It is one of a rare and important group of landscapes by Ernst depicting rays of sunshine falling on the surface of the sea.

• Evocation 2 1944 by SALVADOR DALÍ (1904-1989) is a signed, dated and titled pencil, ink and coloured pencil on paper. From a private Spanish collection, it is estimated between €250,000 and 350,000.