The Art of Lebanon and Modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art sales (27 April) at Bonhams raised a combined total of £1.4m (£2.1m with premium) and set ten artist records although, as is typical of younger markets without a well-established price system, patchy demand resulted in only 57% sold by lot.
The result, says Nima Sagharchi, the head of Modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art at Bonhams, “exceeded our expectations against the backdrop of a challenging economic and geopolitical situation in the Middle East”, with “spirited participation of the Lebanese diaspora community in London”.
The Lebanese sale was led by Kahlil Gibran’s portrait of Mrs Alexander Morten (1914), which went for £150,000 (£182,500), nearly ten times a cautious estimate for the first work by the late artist to be sold at auction. It’s now destined for a Lebanese institution. Opera Garnier Paris (1965) by Farid Aouad sold for £60,000 (£74,500 with premium) to a Lebanese private museum.
Sagharchi says themed sales encourage broader engagement as they “better explain and contextualise” art from a region. She adds that Bonhams “will be continuing in this vein”, and has a sale of Egyptian art from the ancient to the present in the pipeline.