After something of a dry spell, Christie’s has had a strong showing in Dubai with $10.6m spent on a range of artists from a broad swath of territory in the Arab-speaking world. The total was 65% higher than last year’s auction with Modern Egyptian art accounting for 40% of the sale which easily doubled the pre-sale estimates.
Some of the success can be attributed to the quality of the works with the Pharos collection of Egyptian art and a collection of Iraqi art making $1m. But timing may also have had some part in the success with Christie’s having moved their sale to coincide with ArtDubai.