René Magritte’s painting L’État de veille (1958) and Fernando Botero’s sculpture Man on Horse will headline the sales at Sotheby’s first international auction in Saudi Arabia on February 8th, each with an estimate of $1 million–$1.5 million. The auction, entitled “Origins,” will be held at Diriyah, a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Riyadh. It will feature various Western and Arab artists alongside luxury items and sports memorabilia, including a Michael Jordan jersey.
The sale coincides with a greater presence for Sotheby’s in Saudi Arabia, with a new branch for the company soon to open in a Riyadh skyscraper. The company has also recently received a new $1 billion investment from Abu Dhabi–based wealth fund ADQ. While Sotheby’s has hosted a charity auction in the nation previously, this will be its first full-fledged international sale there.
Ahead of the landmark two-day auction, the 100 lots will be shown in a free public exhibition in the Bujairi Terrace from February 1st to 8th. The auction spotlights notable artists from several important movements in Western art history, including Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Wassily Kandinsky, Damien Hirst, and George Condo.
The spotlight on works from the surrealist movement is, perhaps, unsurprising. Works by Surrealists dominated the secondary market in 2024, coinciding with the movement’s 100th anniversary. The total sales of Magritte works in 2024 at auction reached $312.3 million, finalized by the landmark $121 million sale of his Empire of Light (1954) at Christie’s in November 2024. This made Magritte the top-selling artist of the year at auction, beating out Picasso. Alongside Magritte’s L’État de veille, notable Surrealist works included in “Origins” include Paul Delvaux’s La Légende égyptienne (1953), priced at $500,000–$700,000, and Giorgio de Chirico’s Due cavalli in riva al mare, valued at $350,000–$450,000.
The auction includes several notable pieces from modern Arab pioneers, including Louay Kayyali’s Then What? (1965), holding an estimate of $200,000–$300,000. Additionally, a work by Palestinian American artist Samia Halaby, who was awarded a special mention following inclusion in last year’s Venice Biennale, is up for sale. Her abstract piece, Blue Trap in a Railroad Station (1977), is one of the most important of her works to come to auction and could fetch between $200,000 and $300,000. A ceramic piece from the 1960s by Lebanese poet, writer, and painter Etel Adnan, the first of its kind to be sold at auction, will also be part of the sale, with an estimate of $80,000–$120,000.
Digital art will make a prominent appearance with Refik Anadol’s Machine Hallucinations, an AI-generated visual landscape valued at $800,000–$1.2 million.
Sports memorabilia will be another focus of the sale, with a jersey worn by Michael Jordan during the 1998 NBA Playoffs (“The Last Dance” game) expected to draw significant demand with an estimate of $800,000–$1.2 million. Additionally, jerseys worn by Cristiano Ronaldo, including one from the 2024 UEFA European Championships estimated at $50,000–$70,000, will be up for auction.
