LONDON.- Edward Gibbs, Sotheby’s Middle East & India Chairman, said: “The appearance at auction of important private collections gives the world the opportunity to discover exceptional works of art collected with a taste for the very best. This season, it was a privilege to be able to exhibit all 155 rarely-seen works from one of the greatest collections of Orientalist paintings ever formed and to see a growing audience to discover their sheer painterly power. The enhanced enthusiasm carried through to the auction of select pictures from the group, the results of which represent a major market defining moment.”

THE NAJD COLLECTION – 22 October
Precious records of the history of the Islamic world, Orientalist paintings provide a unique window into a realm that has forever changed, capturing in technicolour detail every aspect of life in the region. Yesterday evening, the dedicated evening sale of luminous canvases from the renowned Najd Collection saw 36 paintings sold to bring a combined £33,465,400 / $43,287,495 – a record for an auction in the category.

Fittingly, the top lot of the sale was by ‘Renaissance man’ Osman Hamdi Bey. The first Turkish artist to embrace fully the European academic style of painting, he personifies the bridge between cultures more than any other Orientalist artist. Koranic Instruction (Lot 21), set against the spectacular interior of the Green Mosque in Bursa and featuring his own self-portrait, sold for £4.6 million / $6 million.

One of the most important artists in the movement, Ludwig Deutsch was celebrated with an offering seven works, all of which found a buyer. The Tribute (Lot 15) – rich in painstaking detail and ranking among his most ambitious works – achieved a record-breaking £4.3 million / $5.6 million, doubling the record set for the artist in 2013. This brought the total for works by Deutsch to £9.5 million / $13.9 million, with four works exceeding the £1 million mark.

Arguably the most famous of all the Orientalist painters, Jean-Léon Gérôme was represented in the sale with five works, led by the compellingly cinematic Riders Crossing the Desert (Lot 14) – which sold for a record £3.1 million / $4.1 million. The sale set further artist records for Gustav Bauernfeind (Lot 9), George Seymour (Lot 1), Charles Wilda (Lot 4), Eugène Fromentin (Lot 10), José Benlliure y Gil (Lot 23), Charles Robertson (Lot 32) and William Logsdail (Lot 37).

20TH CENTURY ART / MIDDLE EAST – 22 October
A vibrant international platform for artists from the Middle East, yesterday’s auction of modern and contemporary art brought £2,513,000 / $3,250,566. The auction was led by Mahmoud Saïd’s enchanting Après la Pluie (Lot 20), which made its auction debut at £519,000 / $671,326 – the most impressive example of a landscape by the founder of modern Egyptian art ever to appear at auction. From modern masters to the bright lights of the contemporary scene, the sale also saw one of the most joyous canvases by Ali Banisadr ever to appear at auction, as Stardust (Lot 8) sold for £350,000 / $452,725.

Elsewhere in the sale, records tumbled for artists from the across the region, including Maher Raif (Lot 14), Rima Amyuni (Lot 29), Vahan Amadouni (Lot 40), Ziad Antar (Lot 62) and for a painting by Saloua Raouda Choucair (Lot 7). There were a number of benchmark prices achieved for artists making their debut at auction, including Dana Awartani (Lot 1), Peybak (Lot 54), Hakim Al Akel (Lot 70), Kareem Dabbah (Lot 73) and Nazem Irani (Lot 74).

ARTS OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD & THE SHAKERINE COLLECTION – 23 October
Today, the bi-annual Arts of the Islamic World sale, which explores over 1,200 years of creativity and sophisticated craftsmanship across several continents, together with the exceptional Shakerine Collection of religious tomes and secular manuscripts achieved a combined total of £5,478,500 / $7,046,994.

Formed over fifty years of dedication and passion, the Shakerine Collection had at its heart the very best of calligraphy and illumination. The 65 lots sold this morning were led by a monumental illuminated Safavid Qur’an (Lot 17) from mid-16th century Persia, which soared to £735,000 / $945,430 – tripling its pre-sale estimate of £200,000-300,000. One of the finest Qur’ans to have been offered at auction in decades, this magnificent lavishly illuminated and colourful manuscript bears all the hallmarks of the most refined pieces of the period.

This afternoon, the most coveted lot of the Arts of the Islamic World sale was a portrait of a well-dressed youth, Nazar ‘Ali Beg, dated 1674-5AD (Lot 168) – an important example of single-figure portraits by Mu'in Musavvir, one of the greatest and most prolific Persian artists of the seventeenth century. Formerly in the collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller, it met with significant demand to sell for £250,000 / $321,575 – more than doubling its pre-sale estimate of £80,000-120,000. A further example of strong prices for fine miniature painting, a rare illustration to the ‘Bhagavata Purana’ (Lot 186) brought £225,000 / $289,418, the first time a painting from the celebrated Indian series has been offered at auction since 1992.