Surrealist manifesto to be auctioned in Paris

PARIS (Reuters) - The only known manuscript of the French poet Andre Breton's "Manifeste du surrealisme," the founding text of the Surrealist movement, is to be offered for sale later this month, auctioneers Sotheby's said on Tuesday.

Best known by works such as Salvador Dali's famous image of melting clocks, the surrealist movement had a profound influence on 20th century art through artists ranging from Marcel Duchamp to Rene Magritte.

The Manifesto was intended as the preface to a collection of "automatic writing," a technique in which whatever came into the writer's head went onto the page without regard for form or sense, but became one of the defining texts of surrealism.

Sotheby's said it was "without contest the most prodigious document" in a collection of nine of Breton's manuscripts up for sale, all from the collection of his first wife Simone Collinet.

It said it would try to sell them in one bloc with an estimated price for the Manifesto alone of between 300,000-500,000 euros ($464,600-$774,400).

In addition to Breton's seminal text, Sotheby's said it would be selling several other prized manuscripts including a set of unpublished works by feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir, including her first, unfinished novel.

The auction takes place in Paris on May 21.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Jon Boyle)