LONDON— Demonstrating that Chinese art isn't the only non-Western market sector coming out of the global economic crisis with a spring in its step, Sotheby’s two-day sale of Islamic art in London ended yesterday with a record-breaking total of £25.3 million ($40.3 million) — even though the combined sell-through rate for the overstuffed auctions was a mere 64 percent by lot. Wednesday's individual “Arts of the Islamic World” sale also set a new high-water mark for a single auction in the field, bringing in £18.3 million ($29 million), surpassing its high estimate by £1 million.
In that 378-lot sale, the top lot was a rare Nasrid ear dagger — so named because of the resemblance its distinctive pommel has to the human ear — from 15th-century Spain that inspired fierce telephone bidding before fetching £3.7 million ($5.9 million), over six times its £600,000 low estimate. Other winners were a “Karlsruhe” Safavid niche rug from central Persia dating from the second half of the 16th century, which sold for £1.2 million ($1.8 million), and a stunning 16th-century Safavid ewer and basin — inscribed with verses by the mystical Persian poets Sa’di and Hafiz — that made £1 million ($1.6 million), more than tripling its high estimate of £300,000. Paintings found success, too, with 24 rediscovered scenes dramatically depicting India's Battle of Pollilur selling to an anonymous telephone bidder for £769,250 ($1.2 million).
The week's first sale in the series, Tuesday's “A Princely Collection: Treasures from the Islamic World,” was also no shirker, more than doubling its low estimate of £3.4 million when the 112-work auction fetched £7 million ($11 million) and featuring a sell-through rate of almost 96 percent by lot. That sale was spearheaded by an extraordinary 9th-century Abbasid luster-glazed pottery bowl with a stylized foliate motif recalling the tilework in Tunisia's Great Mosque of Qairawan. With many bidders vying for it, the piece ultimately sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for £713,250 ($1.1 million), more than double its high estimate of £300,000.
Medieval texts were popular at the sale, as well, with an illuminated manuscript from Persia grabbing £601,250 ($955,470), three times its low estimate of £200,000. Other highlights included a gorgeous Qur’an from early-16th-century Persia that garnered £313,250 ($497,798), and a single leaf from the famous Blue Qur’an — produced in gold Kufic script on indigo-dyed parchment in the 9th or 10th century — that sold for £529,250 ($841,052), more than double the lot’s low estimate of £200,000.
In a statement, Sotheby’s Middle East department head Edward Gibbs said that “these exceptional results reflect the strong demand for rare and high quality works of art with good provenance, and the growing strength of this field on the international art scene.” Since Tuesday’s sale was the first evening auction of Islamic art ever, the week's results suggest that the pace of the market's growth is safely in tune with demand from buyers.
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/35991/sothebys-40-million-islamic-art-sales-shatter-records-in-london/
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