A Year in Review: Middle Eastern Modern and Contemporary Art Sales in 1403 SH (Martch 2024 - March 2025)
Leading auction houses—Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Bonhams—continued to maintain dedicated departments for Middle Eastern modern and contemporary art, hosting regular biannual sales.
In 1403 SH, Christie’s organized three Middle Eastern art auctions: two online and one live sale. Its London auctions featured works from the Dalloul Collection and generated a combined total of USD 7.6 million. Sotheby’s also held three live Middle Eastern auctions, all in London, and expanded its presence in the Gulf by hosting a cross-category sale titled Origins in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, where 30 artworks by Middle Eastern artists were offered. Additionally, Sotheby’s curated Khamseen: 50 Years of Saudi Contemporary Art, a selling exhibition in London.
Bonhams proved to be the most active house in the category, organizing four Middle Eastern art auctions across three sale formats. These included two live sales in London—one featuring the Abdulmagid Breish Collection—a live auction in Paris combining Middle Eastern and African art, and an online auction dedicated to Middle Eastern and South Asian art.
In total, the three houses generated USD 23 million in sales of Middle Eastern art in 1403 SH (March 2024 – March 2025), with Christie’s leading at approximately USD 10 million, followed by Bonhams with USD 7 million and Sotheby’s with around USD 6.1 million.
in the Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern Art Category, 1403 SH
Spring 1404 SH (Spring 2025) Auction Season: USD 7.4 Million in Sales from Middle Eastern Art
The first cycle of 1404’s Middle Eastern art auctions, held in spring, featured works by 141 artists. Out of 250 lots offered, 186 were sold, resulting in an aggregate total of nearly USD 7.4 million across the three auction houses:
- Bonhams: USD 2.75 million
- Christie’s: USD 2.5 million
- Sotheby’s: USD 2.1 million
Egyptian artists accounted for the highest number of lots, while Lebanese artists achieved the highest share in terms of sales value. Notably, Turkish artists recorded the highest average price per lot.
Top-Selling Artists – Spring 1404 SH (2025) Middle Eastern Auctions
Ten artists generated a combined USD 2.7 million, representing 36.5% of total sales in this category. Egyptian painter Gazbia Sirry led the season, with four works sold for a cumulative USD 419,000. Other top-performing artists included Fahrelnissa Zeid (Turkey), Paul Guiragossian (Lebanon), Bahman Mohasses (Iran), and Shakir Hassan Al Said (Iraq).
— Sotheby’s, Christie’s & Bonhams, Spring 1403 SH
Highest-Priced Lots – Spring 2025 Middle Eastern Art Sales
Gazbia Sirry, A Woman with Water Pots (1951), oil on cardboard– USD 290,726
(Bonhams, Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art)
Bahman Mohassess, Untitled (Owl) (1987), oil on canvas – USD 203,200
(Sotheby’s, Modern and Contemporary Middle East)
Fahrelnissa Zeid, Abstract (From the London Series) (1959), oil on canvas – USD 203,200
(Sotheby’s, Modern and Contemporary Middle East)
Tehran Auction – Spring 1404 SH (Spring 2025) Edition Reaches Over USD 2 Million
Held on May 22, 2025, the 23rd edition of the Tehran Auction featured 100 works by 97 artists, exclusively focused on modern and contemporary Iranian art. With a sell-through rate of 97%, the sale achieved a total of approximately USD 2.2 million.
The highest-selling lots included:
- Hossein Zenderoudi, Andam (1972) – USD 178,750
- Masoud Arabshahi, Untitled (2002) – USD 145,750
- Sahand Hesamiyan, Far Side (2019) – USD 126,500
Sold for USD 126,500 at 23rd Edition of Tehran Auction
Historical Context: Evolution of Tehran Auction’s Modern & Contemporary Sales
Tehran Auction launched in 2012 with a sale dedicated to Modern and Contemporary Iranian Art. The inaugural auction offered 73 lots and achieved a total of approximately USD 935,000. The second edition, also focused on Modern and Contemporary Iranian Art, presented 83 works and doubled the previous year’s sales in dollar terms. The third and fourth auctions followed the same model, continuing until 2015, each achieving increasingly higher totals.
Despite this upward trend and a peak of USD 6.1 million in the fourth sale, Tehran Auction paused sales in this category for five years. It resumed in January 2021 (coinciding with early reports of COVID-19) with its 13th edition, again focused on Modern and Contemporary Iranian Art. Sales in both the 13th and 17th editions—held respectively at the onset and the waning phase of the pandemic—exceeded USD 4 million, suggesting that the global health crisis and the disruption of in-person events had little impact on this segment of the market. However, since then, the overall dollar value of Modern and Contemporary Art sales at Tehran Auction has declined, with the most recent (23rd) edition reaching only half of that peak—likely reflecting the sharp depreciation of the Iranian rial.
