Giorgio de Chirico

Giorgio de Chirico, born in Greece to Italian parents, founded Metaphysical painting in the 1910s with empty piazzas, long shadows, arcades, mannequins and enigmatic still lifes. These works inspired the Surrealists, who later turned against his classicising style of the 1920s and after. His market is sharply divided: the early metaphysical canvases of 1909 to 1919 are extremely rare and command the top prices, while the many later replicas and variations of his own themes, made from the 1940s to the 1970s, sell from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. His record, Il pomeriggio di Arianna (1913), sold for 15.9 million dollars at Sotheby's New York in October 2020. Authenticity and dating are key due diligence issues.