Editor’s Note
Christie’s recent London auction of modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art demonstrated robust market demand, achieving a 93% sell-through rate by value and setting eight new artist records. The strong performance underscores the growing global appreciation for this vibrant artistic region.
On November 6, Christie’s London held a live auction dedicated to modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art titled “Silsila: Highlights from the Dalloul Collection, Featuring Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art.” Of the 39 lots offered, 85% were sold, achieving a 93% sell-through rate by value. The total sales amounted to £4.1 million (approximately ¥829 million), with eight artists setting new personal auction records.
Twenty-one of the lots in this sale were consigned by the Lebanon-based Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF). The core collection, built over approximately 55 years by Dr. Ramzi Dalloul and his wife Saeda El-Husseini Dalloul, comprises around 3,000 works. Due to its scale and quality, it is considered one of the world’s most important and comprehensive collections of modern and contemporary Arab art.
The most surprising result of the auction was for Saloua Raouda Choucair’s “Poem” (1966-68), which hammered down at £393,700 (approximately ¥80 million), nearly five times its pre-sale estimate of £75,000-85,000 (approximately ¥15-17 million).
Following that, “Untitled” (2014) by Palestinian painter Sliman Mansour sold for £323,850 (approximately ¥70 million) after a fierce bidding war lasting over four minutes, significantly exceeding its estimate of £120,000-180,000 (approximately ¥24-36 million).
Other highlights included Kamal Boullata’s “Nocturne I” (2001), which sold for £165,100 (approximately ¥33 million), nearly three times its estimate of £30,000-50,000 (approximately ¥6-10 million). Helen Khal’s “Untitled” (1985) sold for £95,250 (approximately ¥20 million), more than double its estimate of £30,000-40,000 (approximately ¥6.07-8.1 million).
Fifty-six percent of the day’s lots sold above their pre-sale estimates, with eight artists establishing new auction records. Four of the works that exceeded estimates were from the Dalloul Collection, including pieces by the aforementioned Saloua Raouda Choucair, Sliman Mansour, and Kamal Boullata, as well as works by Mona Saudi, Amal Farhat, Saeed El-Adawi, Fahad Al-Hajjaj, and Laila Shawa.
The strong results of this sale indicate that artists from the Middle East and North Africa, long undervalued for decades, are now gaining global recognition, which is spilling over into the art market. Furthermore, 38% of the sale’s participants were first-time visitors to Christie’s, and 21% were millennials. This suggests that works by Middle Eastern artists are particularly attracting the interest of younger collectors.