Sotheby’s laid down a marker in the Middle East on Saturday evening by hosting Saudi Arabia’s first major art auction.
The results were like the two-part evening sale’s lineup: a mixed bag. The house took in $17.3 million (estimate: $14 million–$20 million) across 117 lots, with works of fine art, luxury objects, and sports memorabilia among them. However, the value of the house’s foray into the desert kingdom was never going to be confined to the depth of bidding alone. The historic outdoor auction served as a portal into the Saudi art and luxury markets (terra incognita for international auction houses), and it will be appraised against the long-term success of Sotheby’s in the country.
The house put on a slick, spectacular show under the Arabian stars and spared no expense. The 300 or so people in attendance, including a handful of royals, looked impressed.
Titled “Origins,” the auction was held in an amphitheatre on Bujairi Terrace in the hyper-gentrified town of Diriyah, the original home of the Saudi royal family. It’s a 15-minute drive west of the capital, Riyadh.
The place is now a luxury oasis of high-end restaurants, plush shops, manicured parks, and the refurbished remains of At-Turaif, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Diriyah is the poster child for Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman’s Saudi Vision 2030 project, which is aiming to wean the economy off oil by boosting tourism, culture, and the private sector.
When Sotheby’s announced the lots for “Origins” last month, it was clear the tentative fusion of art and objects was an acid test for Saudi taste. They included Western and Islamic contemporary and modern art, Rolex watches, Bulgari rings, Hermes handbags, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s game-worn soccer jerseys, among other things. With a third of lots sold to local buyers, and a third of bidders under 40, the house now has some useful preference data to crunch. Sotheby’s next sale in Saudi Arabia will be more refined.
This is why Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s head of Impressionist and modern art in New York, described Saturday as a “fact-finding mission.”
“We’re testing the waters. This is a marathon. No matter the result, we’ll come back smarter,” he told ARTnews as the sky quickly blackened a couple of hours before the action.
Sotheby’s wasn’t the only house taking notes on the night. Nour Kelani, Christie’s newly appointed managing director for Saudi Arabia, was talking among a group in hushed voices on the sidelines.
One lesson Sotheby’s learned as the arid air chilled on Saturday night is that the locals didn’t have much appetite for the shiny rocks and handbags on offer. During the second half of the sale, around half of the 28 jewelry lots passed, while 8 of the 17 bags also failed to find a home.
This was a curveball given the Gulf region’s booming luxury market. But Sotheby’s is playing the long game; any disappointment felt by the luxury department at the end of play on Saturday is likely to be soothed by lasting gain in the region. Forging relationships with new clients (some of them royals), fortifying ties with existing ones, and building trust were objectives for Sotheby’s. The top brass and heads of department who had flown out from New York, London, Dubai, and Geneva went on a charm offensive.
“Origins” coincided with Sotheby’s opening an office in Riyadh in the Al Faisaliah Tower, the first skyscraper in the country and designed by Norman Foster.
“The last two weeks in Saudi were a great opportunity to reconnect with our existing clients and meet many more new potential clients on the ground,” Edward Gibbs, Sotheby’s Middle East and India chairman, told ARTnews. “Though our focus was on our inaugural auction, private sales work very well in tandem, and so we are sure that organically this additional exposure will also benefit that arm of our business.”
(In 2024, the house’s private sale department grew by almost 20 percent to $1.4 billion, the second-highest total in its history. This is helping Sotheby’s to offset its public auction performances.)
The pre-sale exhibition, also in Diriyah, saw almost 2,500 visitors and the panel discussions more than 700 people. “This week was one of our busiest pre-sale exhibitions, with masterclasses every day and the luxury panel discussions oversubscribed on every occasion,” Jessica Wyndham, who heads up Sotheby’s jewelry department in Geneva, told ARTnews. “We met a huge number of people in the kingdom who are passionate about luxury who we hadn’t encountered before. When it came to the offering of the sale, we brought a range of what the broad definition of ‘luxury’ can encompass. It was a fascinating experience to then be on the rostrum, and gauge where the demand lies.”
There was solid desire for rare watches. An iconic Cartier “Crash” sold for almost $230,000 and a “Paul Newman Musketeer” Daytona Rolex went for $240,000. Vincent Brasesco, Sotheby’s top watch specialist and director of digital strategy, showed me some of the watch lots before the sale. I’m sure his eloquence helped move the six out of 10 watches that sold.
The big auction houses are seeing their luxury buyers increasingly delve into the art market. There’s a chance these watch buyers will flirt with paintings in the future, if they’re not already. Speaking of art, paintings and a few sculptures made up the first part of the sale.
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