Sarajevo by Omar El-Nagdi.
Photo courtesy Christie’s
In May 2004, Christie’s, one of the leading art businesses in the world, was invited to conduct the Gulf’s first art-meets-charity gala auction. The event was a resounding success and the next year, the 240-year-old establishment opened an office in the UAE. “At the time there were only a handful of galleries in Dubai, none of the great museums had been envisaged,” said Jussi Pylkkänen, the global president of Christie’s. Now, over a decade later, Christie’s Middle East is pepping for its 20th sale season.
Scheduled for March 15th at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai, the Important Watches sale will open the 20th sale season followed by the Modern and Contemporary Art sale the next day. To mark the anniversary celebrations, a new sale, “Element of Style,” will be introduced on March 17th.
The Important Watches sale will offer 176 lots, with timepieces ranging from US $2,000 to US $200,000. Among the standout pieces are the Roger Dubuis rare 18kt white gold and diamond-set limited edition, skeletonized, double tourbillon wristwatch, and the Rolex 18kt gold chronograph wristwatch with a champagne dial.
The Modern and Contemporary Art sale will feature 125 works of art, of which 40 pieces are by leading Middle Eastern artists.
Egyptian painter Omar El-Nagdi’s most important and ambitious work, the nearly 11-meter-long and 3m-high triptych titled Sarajevo is positioned as the highlight. Painted in April 1992, Sarajevo soon became part of the prestigious collection of Her Excellency Ambassador Francine Henrich and is being offered for the first time at an auction with a pre-sale estimate of US $400,000—US $600,000. Sarajevo represents the slaughter of Bosnians mirroring the horrors of war conveyed through Pablo Picasso’s iconic Guernica (1937).
Also part of the auction are Café de Verre, Café Hajj Daoud, Café Palestine, and Café Al Bahrein (estimate US $300,000—US $400,000) by Lebanese artist Shafic Abboud (1926-2004), comprised out of 130 individually painted temperas, which used to hang in the artist’s bedroom in his Parisian apartment where he lived from 1977 until his death in 2004. Literally translated as the “Engulfed Cafés,” the “Cafés engloutis” refer to the vanishing café culture that was widely popular in the Arab world in the 1950s and 1960s, but became “engulfed” by the civil war that broke out in 1975.
If there are still pages left in your checkbook following the watches and art sales, then browse through the luxury collection at Element of Style, featuring watches, limited edition fountain pens from Montblanc, and vintage luggage and trunks from Louis Vuitton, for a grand total of 150 lots sourced from international collectors.
Christie’s 20th sale season will run from March 15th to 17th, with a public preview exhibition starting on March 13th. The exhibition and sales will be held at the Godolphin Ballroom at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel.
