NEW YORK—Bonhams held its latest Dubai auctions on Oct. 11, taking in $4.4 million. The sales featured modern and contemporary Middle Eastern and South Asian art as well as classic motor cars and watches.
The top lot was a 1954 sculpture by Iraqi artist Jewad Selim, Mother and Child (estimate: $60,000/80,000), which sold for an artist’s record of $384,000. It was followed by Farhad Moshiri’s oil and mixed media on canvas Map of Iran, 2001, which sold for $360,000 (estimate: $120,000/180/0000). Rounding out the top three fine-art lots, Man in a Rocking Chair, 1972, an oil by Ahmed Moustafa, was sold for $192,000 (estimate: $180,000/240,000).
Matthew Girling, Bonhams CEO for the U.K., Europe and the Middle East, took note of the “confidence that has self-evidently returned to the art market and the positive response we have had from local collectors.”