Colin Gleadell has the details on Charles Saatchi’s divesting himself of some Middle Eastern works of Contemporary art. The only unfortunate bit about the sale is that the auctioneer seems to be selling a form of anti-transparency where no records will be kept of the sale prices that can be accessed publicly. That’s

Charles Saatchi has chosen a new online-only auctioneer to sell works from his collection of Middle Eastern contemporary art this month, rather than a more familiar live auction at Sotheby’s, Christie’s or Phillips. The 15 works, valued at more than £250,000, were exhibited in Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East, held at the Saatchi Gallery in 2009. The sale is being staged by the Auction Room, which was formed earlier this year by Sotheby’s former managing director of Europe, George Bailey, and is directed by Janet Rady, an independent expert in Middle Eastern art.

Forty works are currently viewable online, with estimates ranging from £1,200 to £80,000, and bidding has already begun on half of them. A popular lot is Hayv Kahraman’s pair of portraits, Carrying on Shoulder 1 and 2 from the Saatchi collection. Since I last wrote about the artist’s work at Art Dubai in 2009, where her paintings were priced at $10,000 each, they have risen to nearly $100,000 (£62,000) at auction. An exhibition of her latest work which opens today at the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York has already sold out, so bidding on this work is likely to exceed the estimated £36,000 to £40,000.

Charles Saatchi to sell collection of Middle Eastern contemporary art online (Telegraph)