Fine Art: Magritte's dove of peace is an image for our times 

Des O'Sullivan previews the London sales, including Christie's Art of the Surreal event 

Magritte's Le retour.

Painted around 1950, Magritte's dove of peace remains a powerful image for our times. There is plenty of confidence at Christie's that his striking work titled Le Retour will spark universal interest at its Art of the Surreal sale in London on February 28.

Over the course of his career, Magritte became adept at converting his vision of the mysteries of the world into pictures that, through icon-like simplicity, conveyed their messages in ways that are more striking.

The bird is one of his most poetic motifs. It first emerged in 1940. Le Retour offers a dream-like variation. The surrounding seascape is bathed in soft light from an overcast sky. Night is replaced by day in the body of the bird. Oliver Camu of Christie's described this painting as a dreamscape offering a universal symbol of hope and is confident it will whet a growing global appetite for Magritte.

Lucian Freud, Leonora Carrington, Picasso, Munch and Gerhard Richter are among the artists who have highlighted works at the upcoming Spring art sales in London. Freud's fascination with the natural world is underlined by two rare paintings at the 20th/21st-century evening sale at Christie's on February 28. 

Scillonian Beachscape (1945-46) is one of a handful of works inspired by a formative visit to the Isles of Scilly. Garden from the Window (2002) offers a rare glimpse beyond the studio walls and belongs to a series depicting Freud's garden at 138 Kensington Church St. in London. 

Christie's expects that both works, formerly in the renowned collection of Simon Sainsbury, will resonate with collectors especially given the fact that London's National Gallery centenary retrospective entitled Lucian Freud; New Perspectives transfers this month to the Thyssen Bornemisza in Madrid.

Queria si pajaro (He wanted to be a bird) at Christie's.

A Surrealist collection from San Francisco at Christie's shines a particular lens on female artists like Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, Leonor Fini and Stella Sneed. There are works by Andre Masson, René Magritte and Yves Tanguy in the collection. A rare portrait by Carrington, Queria si pajaro (He wanted to be a bird) captures the young actor Enrique Alvarez Felix, son of screen star Maria Felix, in a dramatic moment.

Dance on the beach by Edvard Munch at Sotheby's.

In 1906, Edvard Munch was commissioned to paint the frieze on Max Reinhardt's avant-garde theatre in Berlin. Dance on the Beach, the last of 12 canvases and one of the first immersive installations ever, is at Sotheby's Modern and Contemporary sale on March 1.

Picasso's Fillette au bateau (Maya) at Sotheby's.

This sale boasts a Picasso portrait of his little daughter Maya born to Marie Therese Walther titled Fillette au bateau (Maya). Her birth sparked a creative rejuvenation at a time of personal crisis after a lengthy divorce battle and a worsening political situation in Europe. Picasso painted Maya's portrait no less than 14 times between January 1938 and November 1939.

And Sotheby's will offer a monumental masterpiece from Gerhard Richter's celebrated cycle of abstract paintings. Startling in its intensity and spanning four metres across Abstraktes Bild, 1986 is one of the first large-scale paintings from the series ever created.