Sotheby's inaugural auction in Saudi Arabia to take place in Diriyah in February 2025
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, November 12, 2024


Sotheby's inaugural auction in Saudi Arabia to take place in Diriyah in February 2025
Ahmed Mater, Diptych from The Illumination Series, 2012. Courtesy Sotheby's.



DIRIYAH.- Sotheby’s has today announced plans for its inaugural auction in Saudi Arabia – an unprecedented event that will mark the first ever international auction in the Kingdom’s history. Titled Origins, the sale will take place on 8 February 2025, offering an array of Sotheby’s global offerings for new and seasoned collectors. The two-part evening auction will comprise a sale of fine art by both home-grown Saudi artists alongside the leading names in international art history, as well as a showcase of all that luxury encompasses, including jewellery, watches, cars, sports memorabilia and handbags. Prior to the sale, the contents of Origins will be showcased in a free, public exhibition, open from 1 – 8 February, in a week-long celebration of art, luxury and culture.

The auction and exhibition will be staged in the historic Diriyah, the ancestral heart of the nation, where the First Saudi State was inaugurated just under two decades before Sotheby’s was established in 1744. Today, Diriyah is at the centre of the Kingdom’s evolution into a world-class cultural hub, and has played host to a plethora of dynamic, vibrant and high-profile events since its opening whilst remaining deeply committed to conservation efforts.

Ashkan Baghestani, Sotheby’s Head of Sale & Contemporary Art Specialist: “We wanted to inaugurate our official new home in Saudi Arabia with a taste of what Sotheby’s can bring to the doorsteps of both those who have started their own collections, and others who are about to enter this world for the first time. As such, we wanted this first sale both to serve as an introduction to our offering and to embody the cross-category spirit we pride ourselves on curating.”

The auction follows Sotheby’s official incorporation in Saudi Arabia at the end of last year, and will be complemented by the opening of an office in Riyadh landmark Al Faisaliah Tower (designed by Norman Foster and famous for being the first skyscraper built in the country). Together, this marks the next step in Sotheby’s continued and long-term commitment to the region.

An Overview of Sotheby’s in Saudi Arabia

Sotheby’s has a strong history of supporting the cultural ecosystem and its infrastructure in the Gulf, underpinned by a commitment to investing in educational outreach initiatives and diversifying cultural dialogue and awareness. Sotheby’s lent its support to the Kingdom’s first Contemporary Art Biennale in 2022 and last year’s inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah. On both occasions, Sotheby’s shared its expertise through a series of panel discussions, talks and guided tours given by international specialists who travelled to the region for the occasion. This year, Sotheby’s once again partnered with the Diriyah Biennale Foundation for their 2024 edition, hosting a series of dynamic talks and workshops as part of the public programming.

In 2013, Sotheby’s hosted the first ever highlights exhibition to be staged in Saudi Arabia by any international auction house, and in 2017 held the first ever charity auction in the Kingdom. In September 2022, Sotheby’s participated in The Riyadh International Book Fair (RIBF) - a major cultural event in the Arab cultural calendar and one of the most well-attended and diverse cultural programs to take place in the region. Sotheby’s leading experts in the field exhibited a specially curated selection of exceptional books, manuscripts, photographs and objects.

On Wednesday 15 May, Sotheby’s auctioneer Gareth Jones took to the rostrum for a charity auction in Riyadh ahead of the highly-anticipated “Ring of Fire” boxing match. Part of Riyadh Season 2024, the “Ring of Fire” was an epic showdown between two of the world's greatest boxers, undisputed heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. To commemorate the match, His Excellency, Chairman of General Authority for Entertainment, Turki Al Alshikh, had commissioned four unique watches from luxury brand Jacob & Co. - one for himself, one for each fighter and one that was auctioned to raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation.

In August, Sotheby’s hosted ‘Hafla’, a first-of-its-kind month-long exhibition in New Bond Street in London, celebrating Middle Eastern culture from art to jewellery, food to fashion. At its heart was ‘Khamseen’, an exhibition showcasing fifty works of art spanning the last fifty years of the visual cultural scene in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (1965-2015), curated in collaboration with Qaswra Hafez and Hafez Gallery. Comprising paintings, sculptures, and installations, the exhibition started with the early phases of modern art in the Kingdom by introducing the pioneers of the 1960s and 1970s. With a focus on painting, these artists also set up the first exhibitions and ateliers for the next generations. Subsequently, the artists working between the 1980s to late 1990s investigated different topics whilst using the same medium as their predecessors. Following the mainstream arrival of the internet in the early 2000s, a new, young group of artists started experimenting with various media and shifted their focus outward. Artists under the spotlight included: Dia Aziz Dia, Mohammed Al Saleem, Abdulhalim Radwi, Adulrahman Al Soliman, Mounirah Mosly and Dana Awartani, among others. This October, Sotheby’s London offered a number of Saudi artworks from Hafla for sale as part of the bi-annual Modern and Contemporary Middle East auction.










Today's News

November 9, 2024

Exhibition spotlights the transformative possibilities of color, form, and motion

Abstract artist exhibits paintings in Tubac, AZ art gallery

Almine Rech New York opens Javier Calleja's fourth solo exhibition with the gallery

Berlinische Galerie opens an exhibition of photographs by the Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra

Exhibition features new and recent bronze sculptures by Tom Sachs

Guggenheim unveils new visual identity uniting its global constellation of museums

Kunsthalle Bremen unveils comprehensive Ernst Ludwig Kirchner woodcut exhibition featuring contemporary artists

First exhibition to examine the intertwined histories of American sculpture and race opens in DC

Monumental Yayoi Kusama Dancing Pumpkin sculpture unveiled ahead of exhibition

Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden opens a group exhibition inspired by Etel Adnan's book 'Sea and Fog'

MoMA will present Christian Marclay's 'The Clock' for the first time in over a decade

Ludwig Museum opens an exhibition of works by Wolfgang Hahn Prize 2024 winner Anna Boghiguian

Sotheby's inaugural auction in Saudi Arabia to take place in Diriyah in February 2025

Exhibition at James Cohan centers upon Bill Viola's large-scale video installation 'The Raft'

Kaveri Raina opens first solo exhibition at Casey Kaplan

Gagosian exhibits works by Jeff Wall in New York

Kunstmuseum Luzern opens an exhibition of works by Maya Dunietz

Rarely-seen Dutch Impressionist works from private collections on view at Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art

Kent State University Museum partners with student organization to advance its mission

Walead Beshty's fifth solo exhibition with Regen Projects opens in Los Angeles




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful