Sotheby's marks Britain's World of Islam Festival with 5 auctions


Sotheby's marks Britain's World of Islam Festival with five grand auctions

April 7, 2016: Auction house, Sotheby’s, will trace 1000 years of Middle Eastern history with five exquisite sales in mid-April. 

Sotheby's and Britain's World Islamic Art Festival

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Britain’s World of Islam Festival as well as its own biannual Islamic Week, Sotheby’s is to stage its most wide-ranging series of exhibitions, sales as well as lectures by leading scholars in the Middle Eastern region. 

The Library of Mohamed and Margaret Makiya is a single-owner sale of the rare book collection of Iraqi architect Mohamed Makiya and his wife Margaret. The auction holds titles by prominent authors, including Persian poet, Omar Khayyam, as well as topographical and architecture drawings by French traveler, Pascal Xavier Coste. It will take place on April 19. Its catalog is available here

The Orientalist Sale showcases American as well as European explorers’ renditions of the Middle East and North Africa, once exotically called The Orient. It encompasses observer paintings such as Ludwig Deutsch’s Morning Prayers from 1902, estimated at £500,000 (around $707,000)-800,000, and John Frederick Lewis’s Outdoor Gossip from 1873, valued at £300,000-500,000. Also to take place on April 19, its lot catalog is available here

Sotheby's and Britain's World of Islamic Art FestivalArts of the Islamic World presents objects that narrate the artistic cross-pollination between China, India, Persia, Turkey, and North Africa and Europe. It includes such rare items as a finely decorated Qur’an leaf in eastern Kufic script, dated around the turn of the 12th century and estimated at £200,000-300,000. To take place on April 20, its catalog is available here.  

20th Century Art / Middle East celebrates the London relaunch of Sotheby’s international platform for modern and contemporary arts from North Africa, Turkey, Iran and the Middle East. Among its vibrant, eclectic lots are Mahmoud Mokhtar’s On the Banks of the Nile sculpture from 1921 (expected to fetch £120,000-180,000) and Adel Abidin’s I’m Sorry neon lightbox from 2008 (estimated at £20,000-30,000). The sale is to be held on April 20, with more information available here

Alchemy: Objects of Desire: The first-ever single-owner Modern and Contemporary Iranian sale centers upon the treasure-trove collection of famed Iranian artist and curator, Fereydoun Ave. It includes works by Cy Twombly, Farhad Moshiri and Harve Van Der Straeten among others. Sotheby’s is to hold the sale on April 21. Its catalog is available here

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