The 12th Christie’s Middle East Auction to be hosted on Mar 22-23

By holding its 22^nd sale season in Dubai, Christie’s demonstrates its continuous support of the art auction market in the region, which was started by Christie’s 12 years ago. Last year Christie’s moved the October sale season to London to allow Middle Eastern art to be seen and appreciated by a wider international collector group. The success of the move was demonstrated with sell through rates of 85% by lot.

“Christie’s continues its presence and activity in the Middle-East with two important auctions, contemporary art and watches, held to coincide with Art Dubai. This year the watches sale will be the highest value offering Christie’s has had in the region. Since last October’s sale in London, art from the region has attracted a wider, international group of collectors. The opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and the recent acquisition of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi from the region at Christie’s New York is a further indication of the importance of art and culture in the region”, commented David Earl of Snowdon, Honorary Chairman Christie’s Europe and Middle East.

Since 2005, when Christie’s opened its representative office in Dubai, Michael Jeha has led Christie’s business in the region, by developing new sale concepts, including Christie’s Education into the regional weeks and help to raise over $20 million for charitable causes. Alongside the success of the auctions, this has also been a time of huge growth in the development of a strong and active gallery scene nurturing artists and supporting collectors. The founding of the art fair, regular auction seasons and the opening of museums and private collectors have all played a part and each has benefitted from the others.

In her 10 year career Hala Khayat has appraised over 5,000 works of art of which over half were offered for auction and furthermore she witnessed the highest price paid to date at auction for any Middle Eastern work of art when Parviz Tantavoli’s The Wall (Persepolis) reached $2.8 million, as well as the first and only private collection of Middle Eastern Art, which sold 100%.   

Going forward Michael Jeha and Hala Khayat are working to develop two sectors:

First, the need for better research and reference materials about artists from the Middle East, including books and catalogues to help authenticate works from artists’ estates. This can only increase confidence in the market.

Secondly, they would like to see an increase in the quality of contemporary works included for sale at auction so that the market for these works can become more varied and supported.

The evening auction of Modern and Contemporary Art from the region includes 79 works by artists from Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Sudan.  The Important Watch sale held the following evening continues to attract new collectors since it began in October 2013. In this category demand is for unique and vintage watches as well as a developing interest in ladies watches.

Making its debut at the upcoming Christie’s Dubai auction of Important Watches on Friday, 23 March is a rare, specially-commissioned Rolex GMT-Master featuring the name of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai on its customized dial, estimated at $120,000–160,000 or AED440,000–580,000.  

Lot 120 is a very fine and extremely rare stainless steel, dual time automatic Rolex wristwatch with sweep centre, seconds, date and bracelet, which was serviced by Rolex Geneva in 2017.  Presented in a Rolex box embossed with the crest of the UAE, the timepiece customized commissioned by HH Sheikh Mohammed also includes a unique artistic representation of the watch – a watercolor on paper combined with digital drawing applied on aluminium, signed by the artist.

“Personalized Rolex watches are highly prized gifts, often created to celebrate milestone occasions, and they are highly sought after by regional and international collectors,” said Remy Julia, head of watches for Christie’s Middle East, India, and Africa.

 “The present reference 1675 with the name of HH Sheikh Mohammed in red is an exceedingly rare example of a Rolex GMT-Master model and given that it has never previously been offered to the market, we anticipate strong interest in this timepiece from collectors in the UAE and around the world,” he added.

With the official founding of the United Arab Emirates on 2 December 1971, uniting its seven emirates, HH Sheikh Mohammed was named as the new country’s first Minister of Defence, the youngest official in the world to hold this position.  It was during this period that watches with his name were ordered, including the Rolex being offered by Christie’s.

The Al Maktoum personalized GMT-Master will be among the 219 lot strong sale, available for viewing at Jumeirah Emirates Towers as of Tuesday, 20 March, and is set to be auctioned on Friday, 23 March at 5pm

Auctions in Dubai

22 March 2018 at 7.00pm          Middle Eastern Modern & Contemporary Art

23 March 2018 at 5.00pm          Important Watches

Public Viewing in Dubai

20 to 23 March 2018

10.00am to 8.00pm

Except Friday 23 March when exhibition closes at 1.30pm

Location

Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel