Sotheby’s tapped into the energy of Art Basel Paris week and recorded the highest-ever totals in France for surrealist and modern art auctions on Friday. The house’s Surrealism and Its Legacy and Modernitês sales took a combined €89.7 million ($104 million), marking a 50 percent increase on the same double-header sale last year.

The result was also the highest total for a various owner sale series at Sotheby’s Paris.

Amedeo Modigliani’s Elvire en buste (1918-1919) led the way, soaring past its €7,500,000 ($8.7 million) high estimate and selling for €27 million ($31.3 million). This is the highest auction price for the Italian artist in France. Not only this, but it also became the most valuable work ever sold by Sotheby’s Paris. Seven bidders chased the painting, which had not been seen since 1947, when it entered a private collection.

Another work by Modigliani titled Raymond (1915)—believed to depict the novelist Raymond Radiguet and held in the same private collection for over 65 years—also set pulses racing on the night. After a tense 10-minute bidding battle, it sold for €10.6 million ($12.4 million), more than double its high estimate.

The surrealist part of the sale generated €26.9 million ($31.2 million), the second-highest total ever for a surrealist auction at Sotheby’s in France. René Magritte’s La Magie Noire (1934) was the top performer, going for €10.7 million ($12.4 million), doubling its estimate and setting a rec...