Posted inArts

Christie’s sells $10.6m in the Dubai art auction

Auction sales jumped by 65 percent from last year

Christie’s 16th consecutive season showcased three collections. The Pharos Collection of Modern Egyptian Art, expected to sell for around $1.4 million, made $3,895,500. The top lot of the sale, also from the Collection, was Abdul Hadi El-Gazzar’s (Egyptian, 1925-1965) Construction of the Suez Canal which sold for $1,023,750, a new world auction record for the artist.

Michael Jeha, Christie’s Managing Director in the Middle East, said: “Christie’s dominates the market for Middle Eastern Modern and Contemporary Art with our sales accounting for 74% of the auction market.”

“By moving the date of the well-established spring sales, Christie’s added an international auction to the stellar list of art-related events taking place in Dubai this week. It is a sign of the continuing strength and maturity of this market that, as in other great art cities around the world, Dubai has taken its place in the international art calendar,” he added.

Another record breaking sale was a Black painting by Iranian contemporary artist Ali Banisadr which sold for $339,750 A depiction of the Sixth Ode from the seven Arabic poems known as the Muallaqat Al Sabaa by the Ali Omar Ermes, sold for $195,750 with a proportion of the proceeds from the sale to go to UNHCR.

The sale of Important Watches will be held on 20th March at 7 pm at the Emirates Towers Hotel.

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