Dubai – The 29 lot strong Part I sale at Christie’s October auction of Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art totalled $3,640,100/AED 13,370,087 tonight and was 96% sold. The sale took place in a dynamic and buzzing sale room with bidders from 13 countries participating either in person, by phone or online via Christie’sLive. The works of art represented 8 different nations of the Middle East and new records were set for 5 artists, Gazbia Sirry (lot 8), Hayv Kahraman (lot 14), Ramazan Bayrakoglu (lot 16), Shirazeh Houshiary (lot 22) and Timo Nasseri (lot 30) with 50% of lots sold above their high estimate. The low estimate for this first part of the two-part sale was $2.6 million. The sales continue tomorrow evening with part II.
20% of new registrants from the region were engaging with Christie’s over the last 3 days from viewing to bidding, reflecting the constant growth of interest in the arts.
The top lot of the sale was Pecheurs à Rosette by Mahmoud Saïd which sold for $818,500 /AED 3,006,350 (estimate $400,000-600,000). Pêcheurs à Rosette, painted in 1941 is one of the artist’s most comprehensive works, showing a richly detailed Egyptian scene beside the Nile with fishermen unloading their catch, a perfect expression of national Egyptian identity.
Michael Jeha, Managing Director of Christie’s Middle East, commented “We are delighted by the strong results that were witnessed in the saleroom today and the market reacted extremely positively to the masters of Middle Eastern art and attracted a lot of interest, which resulted in 50% of the lots selling above high estimate. Dubai has been very busy over the last weeks from the buzz which began at Art Night held at the DIFC last week, to the numerous gallery openings and all of these events have culminated in a highly successful sale tonight. It was also encouraging to see interest from international and national buyers evenly balanced.”
We are looking forward to Part II of the Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art sale taking place tomorrow, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 at 7.00pm. Viewing of the 103 lot strong sale is possible from 10.00am to 12.00pm tomorrow.
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