Christie’s London achieved a total of £4.1 million (around $5.2 million) during a sale of modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art on November 6. The sale achieved a 93 percent sell-through rate by value and 85 percent sell-through rate by lot. The sale also confirmed growing appetite among younger buyers: 38 percent of participants were new to Christie’s, with 21 percent being millennials.
Of the 39 lots that were offered, 21 came from the Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF). Those 20-some works are just a fraction of the collection formed by collectors Ramzi Dalloul and Saeda El Husseini Dalloul over some 55 years; the couple assembled around 3,000 artworks that are today regarded as one of the most significant and comprehensive collections of Arab modern and contemporary art globally.
The sale’s strong results seem reflect a broader shift in the market in which Middle Eastern and North African artists, who are only recently becoming increasingly recognized in the international art canon, are seeing a rapid correction in their individual markets after decades-long undervaluation.
The standout lot was Saloua Raouda Choucair’s Poem (1966–68), which sold for £393,700 ($500,000)—more than tripling its high estimate and marking the highest price ever at auction for the Lebanese modernist. Another star, Palestinian painter Sliman Mansour, saw his Untitled (2014) hammer for £323,850 ($411,000), a full 80 percent above its high estimate after over four minutes of heated bidding.
More than half of lots—56 percent, to be exact—sailed above their pre-sale estimate, with notable performers including Kamal Boullata’s Nocturne I (2001), selling for £165,100 ($210,000), or 230 percent above the high estimate, and an untitled work from 1985 by Helen Khal, which reached £95,250 ($121,000), or 138 percent above expectations.
The evening set eight world auction records, four of which came from works in the Dalloul Collection. Those artists are Kamal Boullata, Mona Saudi, Sliman Mansour, Ammar Farhat, Saïd El-Adawi, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Fahad Al-Hajailan, and Laila Shawa. After Choucair’s Poem, the second priciest work in this group was a 2014 untitled work by Mansour that sold for £323,850 ($426,000).
“This sale highlighted the extraordinary depth and vitality of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern art,” Ridha Moumni, chairman of Christie’s Middle East and Africa, and specialist Marie-Claire Thijsen said in a joint statement. “With over 20% of buyers being millennials, the legacy of these artists is clearly resonating with a new generation.”
