International auction house Sotheby’s made its Saudi Arabia debut on February 8. Hosted in the historical city of Diriyah, the “Origins” sale presented a broad spectrum of offerings, including fine art, jewellery, watches, and sports memorabilia. Altogether, the evening concluded with total sales of USD 17.3 million. While the number might seem modest for a market with Saudi Arabia’s economic heft, it offers insights into the region’s collecting patterns and potential.

International figures were in the limelight throughout the evening, with British street artist Banksy’s painting Subject to Availability (2011)—a pastoral landscape from his ongoing Vandalized Oil series (2005– )—achieving the night’s top price at USD 1.2 million. Colombian artist Fernando Botero’s Society Woman (2003), depicting an aristocratic lady with exaggeratedly plump features, was sold for USD 1 million, while Light and Space pioneer James Turrell’s pink luminous rectangle The Light Underneath (2006) soared to USD 660,000—more than tripling its high estimate of USD 180,000. Among the modern masters, Belgian Surrealist René Magritte’s painting L'État de veille (1958), a dreamlike amalgam of landscape and architecture, matched Banksy’s USD 1.2 million, and Picasso’s work on paper, Fleurs (1948), significantly exceeded its high estimate of USD 70,000 with USD 204,000.

The evening also saw strong performances from Middle Eastern artists, with multiple works exceeding presale estimates. Syrian Modernist Louay Kayyali’s oil-on-canvas Then What ?? (1965), which portrays the desolation of Palestinian exile through mournful, black-clad figures and expressive brush strokes, set a new artist record at USD 900,000. Meanwhile, Saudi artist Mohammed Al Saleem’s abstract painting O’ God, Honor Them and Do Not Honor an Enemy Over Them (1977) nearly tripled its high estimate by reaching USD 660,000. Additionally, works by Palestinian American artist-activist Samia Halaby, Saudi artist Abdulhalim Radwi and Ahmed Mater, and Lebanese artist Huguette Caland also topped their high estimates. 

The collection for sale was intentionally eclectic, designed to gauge Saudi Arabia’s market preferences while showcasing Sotheby’s diverse portfolio to regional collectors. The evening’s auction drew bidders from 45 countries, with Saudi buyers making up about one-third of the participants. Among them, more than 30 percent were under the age of 40, perhaps signaling the emergence of a young and culturally engaged collector base in the Kingdom.

The inaugural sale arrived amid Saudi Arabia’s broader cultural initiatives, which include the Royal Commission for AlUla’s EUR 50 million (USD 52.4 million) contribution to Paris’s Centre Pompidou renovations and extensive collaborations with French cultural institutions under Vision 2030—the Gulf state’s ambitious road map to diversify beyond oil-dependent economics. For Sotheby’s, which recently secured a USD 1 billion investment from Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ, the auction in Saudi Arabia might pave the way for more high-profile sales in the Middle East. The investment also marks a shift in the auction house’s management, with three board seats now allocated to Emirati fund managers. While the neighboring UAE has established itself as a regional cultural hub through major institutions and events such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Sharjah Biennial, Saudi Arabia’s unabating cultural transformation sets the stage for its role in the global art market.

Louis Lu is an associate editor at ArtAsiaPacific.

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