A large oil painting by the Argentine-born surrealist Leonor Fini changed hands in Paris on October 23 for $503,700, or €448,000, at Sotheby's. The canvas, titled L'Oeil du poisson and dated 1971, measures 116.3 by 73 centimetres and cleared more than double its low estimate, a result that stands out in a week dominated by eight-figure evening-sale headlines.

What makes the result notable is the painting's own recent market history. The same work last appeared at auction in June 2016, when it sold at Artcurial in Paris for $66,800. A year earlier it had gone under the hammer at Bonhams in New York for $47,500. Against that 2016 figure, the October 2026 price represents an increase of roughly 654 percent, working out at about 21 percent a year across the intervening decade.

Fini, who spent much of her career in Paris and became known for dreamlike, theatrical imagery, has long occupied a distinctive corner of the surrealist market, admired by collectors but less traded at the top level than some of her contemporaries. Results of this kind, where a mid-market work multiplies in value over a single decade, are closely watched as a gauge of how far renewed attention to overlooked women surrealists is translating into prices.

The sale also underlines how much of the action during Paris auction week happens away from the evening sales. While the headline lots draw the crowds, individual pictures with a documented trading record can deliver the week's sharpest percentage gains, rewarding buyers who bought before the current reassessment of Fini's work gathered pace.