PARIS ~ Nine manuscripts including the Surrealist Manifesto that defined one of the great art movements of the 20th century fetched 3.2 million euros (US$5 million) at a Paris auction on Wednesday.

French collector Gerard Lheritier, founder of the Paris museum of letters and manuscripts made the winning bid for the nine documents signed by the founder of surrealism, Andre Breton, at a Sotheby’s auction.

The documents published in 1924 were from the collection of the late Simone Collinet, Breton’s first wife. Sotheby’s had estimated their value at between 300,000 and 500,000 euros.

Breton, who died in September 1966 at age 70, defined the surrealist movement as “psychic automatism in its pure state.”