A giant pearl and a 19th-century portrait of an Arab cleric are among highlights of $17m auctions in Dubai that will test demand for Middle Eastern art.
“After Prayers,” a 19th-century painting by Austrian Rudolf Ernst of an elderly man leaning on his Nubian aide at a mosque, may fetch as much as $600,000 at Bonhams on Wednesday. A pearl weighing almost 60 carats is estimated to sell for as much as $250,000 at Christie’s International on April 20 as part of a two-day sale of art and jewelry in the Arabian Gulf sheikhdom known for its pearl-diving history.
Dealers are watching prices after part of a 16th-century Persian manuscript sold in London for 7.4 million pounds ($12m) this month, an auction record for any Islamic work.
“We’re seeing a more stable market,” Guy Vesey, Middle East director for Bonhams, said in an interview. “2006-2008 was a boom globally, and the auction market followed that boom.”
Bonhams Orientalist art auction, estimated to raise $4.8m, includes “The Celebration” by Jan Baptist Huysmans, a painting of Arab men dressed in djellabas, that may get as much as $500,000, and “Promenade in a Street in India” by Edwin Lord Weeks, estimated at as much as $400,000.
Christie’s will hold a modern and contemporary-art auction on April 19, offering 120 lots with a total value of about $6m. Contemporary art includes four lots from Iranian Farhad Moshiri and Lebanese artists Aymaan Baalbaki and Nabil Nehas. The modern section offers Egypt’s Abdul Hadi El Gazzar’s “Fishing,” valued at as much as $350,000.
A sculpture by Parviz Tanavoli of Iran entitled “The Wall and the Birds” is estimated at $120,000 to $180,000. In April 2008, as oil traded at about $120 a barrel, Tanavoli’s “The Wall (Oh Persepolis)” set an auction record for a Middle Eastern artist by fetching $2.84m at Christie’s Dubai.
Christie’s jewelry sale is also estimated to raise as much as $6m and will feature a diamond and fancy-colored set that may sell for as much as $550,000.
“People are more selective,” Michael Jeha, managing director of Christie’s Middle East, said in an interview. “Speculators have exited and we’re seeing the return of traditional collectors previously priced out of the market.”
Oil prices have rebounded to levels last seen in 2008, at the height of the economic boom, when art sold at several times the estimated price. The UAE and Qatar are leading the Arabian Gulf in building museums to boost tourism and end dependence on income from oil and gas exports.
Bonhams Photographs and Orientalist Art auction takes place on Wednesday. Christie’s modern and contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish art will be held April 19, and the jewelry sale on April 20.
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