This is the stuff of collecting dreams: the eBay buy that turns out to be a little-known work by one of (if not the) world’s most valuable artists. 

A picture by Rene Magritte will be sold at the end of next month that has reportedly taken exactly that journey. 

Chess pieces reaching to the sky, the perfect Magritte composition. Image Rago/Wright.

The small picture, in ballpoint pen, pencil and coloured pencil, was picked up for less than $2,000.

On May 21 it will be sold by Rago/Wright and carries a $150,000 estimate. 

The piece is a nice example, and shows some of the Belgian artist’s signature images. He loved repeating himself and often returned to the clouds and chess pieces seen here. 

Born in 1898 Rene Magritte is one of the standout artists of the 20th-century Surrealist movement. 

He took inspiration from dreams, and his most famous works are highly realistic pictures of improbable or impossible juxtapositions, often inspired by dreams. 

Empire of Light was a $121-million auction sensation last year. 

This picture was once owned by Mora Henskens, the companion of Magritte’s great friend, Harry Torczyner. He was reportedly given the picture by Georgette, Magritte’s widow, after the artist died in 1967.

It had been auctioned previously, in 2022, and had then presumably been listed on eBay by that owner. 

“This certainly isn’t an everyday thing in the auction world,” Joe Stanfield, senior specialist and fine art director at Rago/Wright told ARTNews. “It’s always exciting to help resurface unknown, and underknown, works from legendary artists—that our consignor found this Magritte on eBay just adds to the thrill.”

Magritte’s work is extremely valuable. 

Last year, Empire of Light, one of his most reproduced images, sold for $121 million in New York.

All is not what it seems, is Magritte’s message. 

Baseball amid an avenue of chess pieces while a turtle flies by. The Secret Player (1927) shows some favourite Magritte imagery. 

In his pictures, bowler hatted men might rain from the sky, a woman might turn into a fish, or an image and reality swap places. 

And Magritte presented himself as an ordinary middle-class Belgian. He might easily be mistaken for a civil servant or accountant. 

This picture though has turned out to be exactly what it looks like, with a value that might make dreams come true.