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Christies Third Dubai Auction - Oct 31

Published October 27th, 2007

Christie’s International, the world’s largest auction house, will offer as much as $9 million of contemporary art, including $7 million of Iranian and Arab works, at its third Dubai sale on Oct. 31.

Works by Egypt’s Ahmed Moustapha and Syrian Fateh Moudarres are among the lots, the company said. Moustapha’s “Where the Two Oceans Meet (Variant No. 3)” (2003) fetched $284,800 at Christie’s first Dubai sale in May 2006, breaking the auction record for an Arab work. His “Qur’anic Polyptych of Nine Panels” has a top estimate of $350,000 at this month’s sale.

Dubai, which hosted the first DIFC Gulf Art Fair in March, has become the center of the Middle East’s art market and the regional base for Christie’s.

“This third sale will help to firmly establish a strong and vibrant secondary market for modern Arab and Iranian art in the Middle East,” said Jussi Pylkkanen, Christie’s Middle East president.

Christie’s raised $8.5 million at its first Dubai auction and $9.4 million at the second sale in February. “Yesteryear” by Abdul Kadir al-Raes set a record for a work by an Emirati artist in the February auction, selling for $262,000, or almost five times the presale estimate.