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Prowess of Moroccan Resistance against French Colonization

Prowess of Moroccan Resistance against French Colonization
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Prowess of Moroccan Resistance against French Colonization

Prowess of Moroccan Resistance against French Colonization

The High Commissioner for Former Resistants and Former Members of the Liberation Army in Morocco has released a new collective publication entitled "The Battle of Ait Abdallah against the French Colonization."

The book gathers the works of a scientific symposium organized to discuss and preserve the research efforts exploring the great patriotic struggle and prowess of the Moroccan resistance.

The 257-page book compiles several studies carried out by a group of intellects active in the historic landscape of Morocco. It seeks to deepen discussions over the Moroccan resistance, in addition to expanding the research on the battle of Ait Abdallah against the French colonization.

The chapters of the book explore many aspects of resistance and studies about "the French colonial campaign on the Little Atlas and Ait Abdallah in the French Documents between 1912 and 1934," and "Resistance in Souss in the Moroccan Amazigh Poetry."

The High Commissioner said that it published the book as part of its goal to highlight the history of some regions and parties, and their battles and heroes who were not served justice by historians.

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Magritte Painting Nets Auction Record of $121 Million

Rene Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" is on display during a press preview for Christie's Fall 20/21 Marquee Week in New York, November 8, 2024. (AFP)
Rene Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" is on display during a press preview for Christie's Fall 20/21 Marquee Week in New York, November 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Magritte Painting Nets Auction Record of $121 Million

Rene Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" is on display during a press preview for Christie's Fall 20/21 Marquee Week in New York, November 8, 2024. (AFP)
Rene Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" is on display during a press preview for Christie's Fall 20/21 Marquee Week in New York, November 8, 2024. (AFP)

A painting by Rene Magritte shattered an auction record for the surrealist artist on Tuesday, selling for more than $121 million at Christie's in New York.

The seminal 1954 painting had been valued at $95 million, and the previous record for a work by Magritte (1898-1967) was $79 million, set in 2022.

After a nearly 10-minute bidding war on Tuesday, "Empire of Light" ("L'Empire des lumieres") was sold for $121,160,000, "achieving a world-record price for the artist and for a surrealist work of art at auction", according to auction house Christie's.

The painting -- depicting a house at night, illuminated by a lamp post, while under a bright, blue sky -- is one of a series by the Belgian artist showing the interplay of shadow and light.

"Empire of Light" was part of the private collection of Mica Ertegun, an interior designer who fled communist Romania to settle in the United States where she became an influential figure in the arts world.

She died in late 2023 and was married to the late Ahmet Ertegun, the music magnate who founded the Atlantic Records label.

The sale of the Magritte painting was an expected highlight of this week's autumn sales season in New York, at a time when the art market has seen a slowdown since last year.

Christie's -- which is controlled by Artemis, the investment holding company owned by the Pinault family -- said sales totaled $2.1 billion in the first half of this year.

That is down for the second straight year, after a peak of $4.1 billion in 2022 as the world emerged from the coronavirus pandemic.

During the same Christie's auction on Tuesday, a celebrated 1964 painting of a gas station by 86-year-old Ed Ruscha, titled "Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half," sold for $68.26 million, setting a new auction record for the American pop artist.