Mohammed Afkhami’s family fled Iran after the revolution but that hasn’t stopped him from becoming interested in collecting Contemporary art from Iran. Those works are added to his family’s own holdings of Islamic art and his other collecting interests like vintage advertising posters:Continue Reading
Sotheby's Islamic Evening Sale = £7.07m
Sotheby’s sale of Islamic art kicked off in London with the first ever Evening sale of what was described as “A Princely Collection.” With a pre-sale estimate of £4.8m at the high end, the total of £7.07m is a huge success especially when viewed through the 95.5% sell-through rate.Continue Reading
Who's the Prince?
Georgina Adam does some sleuthing on this week’s Islamic art sales and the tent-pole auction of a “Princely collection” to figure out where it all comes from:
In a big week for Islamic sales in London who is behind the “Princely collection” of “treasures from the Islamic world” that comes up for auction in the first-ever evening sale in this category at Sotheby’s next Wednesday? The 112 objects, from 9th-century manuscripts and a 13th-century Persian tile to 19th-century Indian jewellery are expected to fetch over £4m. Specialists point out that many of the pieces figured in the book 1,400 Years of Islamic Art, and this reference is indeed given in the catalogue entries – but with no mention that the 1981 book was published by Khalili Gallery, the shop owned at the time by David Nasser Khalili, the Jewish-Iranian Islamic art collector. Continue Reading
Turkish Demand for History
Souren Melikian, a scholar of Persian art, remarks upon the growing appetite for Turkish works of art that echoes the larger trend seen in China where economic advancement creates demand for relics of an opulent past:
Turks are now scrutinizing their past as never before and, ironically enough, auction house experts are the only ones who truly respond to this phenomenon. [….] But professionals do not doubt that Turkish collectors have played the lead role in the spectacular price rise of art and antiquities with a perceived Turkish connection — even if the £2.3 million box or the £115,250 Koran may end up in a Gulf emirate at prices that suggest uncontrollable hubris.The rise of Turkish art from the past began a quarter of a century ago or so courtesy of the wealthy financial and industrial establishment. Continue Reading
Florida Woman's Turkish Delight
A Florida woman joins the ranks of surprised art owners who discover their piece is more than it seemed:
[O]n April 15, a painting that Newman snapped up 15 years ago for $200 at a Cleveland estate sale fetched $155,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in London. Newman is pleasantly stunned, not only by the sum, but because she is finally able to know more about the artist who painted the piece. […] Erol Akyavas, a contemporary Turkish artist who lived from 1932 to 1999. Continue Reading