Sotheby’s moves Middle East auctions to London

Sotheby’s moves Middle East auctions to London Sotheby’s is to stage its next auction of Middle Eastern art in London in October, rather than return to the Gulf, the auction house has confirmed. It ran sales in Doha between 2013 and 2015, but turned in stronger sales in London in April. These included the £600,000 hammer price (£725,000 including buyer’s premium) achieved for Mahmoud Mokhtar’s Au Bord du Nil (1920s), the highest price ever for a work of Arab sculpture, and the highly successful single-owner sale from the collection of the Iranian artist and curator, Fereydoun Ave.

Sotheby’s will keep its Doha presence and is adding a Dubai office, says its Middle East specialist Ashkan Baghestani. But London opens the market to a broader collector base, he says, in particular to institutions with dedicated Middle East curators. Sotheby’s sale of 20th-century art from the Middle East is on 17 October.