Sotheby’s inaugural sale in Saudi Arabia brought in a total of $17.28 million (all prices include fees). Collectors from more than 45 countries participated in the first commercial art auction to be held in the kingdom on Saturday, February 8th.
The 117-lot sale, titled “Origins,” was led by two works: René Magritte’s L’État de veille (1958) and Banksy’s Subject to Availability (2011), which each sold for $1.2 million. As well as artworks, the sale featured luxury items and sports memorabilia, including a 1998 Michael Jordan game jersey which sold for $960,000, and a pair of Graff diamond pendant earrings which sold for $780,000.
According to Sotheby’s, some 30% of participants were under the age of 40 and “almost a third” of lots sold to buyers from within Saudi Arabia. Notably, the auction house accepted cryptocurrency bids for lots in the sale.
“The results that we have achieved here during our inaugural sale is a clear signal of the depth of appetite that exists for art, and the thirst that is ready to be unlocked, of which tonight was a successful next step,” said Sotheby’s head of sale for fine art, Ashkan Baghestani.
Following the Magritte and Banksy works, the top artwork sales at the auction included:
- Fernando Botero’s Society Woman (2003) sold for $1.02 million.
- Refik Anadol’s Machine Hallucinations – Space | Chapter II: Mars (Generative AI Data Painting) (2021) sold for $900,000.
- Louay Kayali’s Then What ?? (1965) sold for $900,000, a new auction record for the artist.
The sale also set a new benchmark for Saudi artist Abdulhalim Radwi, whose Untitled (1984) sold for $264,000, exceeding its high estimate of $200,000. The work was one of four lots by Saudi artists to be offered at the sale, all of which exceeded their estimates. The other three works by Saudi artists were as follows:
- Mohammed Al Saleem’s O’ God, Honor Them and Do Not Honor an Enemy Over Them (1977) sold for $660,000, more than double its high estimate of $250,000.
- Ahmed Mater’s Illumination Diptych (Makkiah Tale) (2012) sold for $102,000, well in excess of its $70,000 high estimate.
- Maha Malluh’s Magadeer (from Food for Thought) (2024) sold for $84,000 against a high estimate of $70,000.
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