LONDON.- Christie's will present a live auction SILSILA: Highlights from the Dalloul Collection including Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art on 6 November 2025 at King Street, London.

Following the record-breaking auctions of 2023 and 2024, this evening sale is led by 20 exceptional works from the esteemed Dalloul Collection, Beirut, Lebanon. Silsila – meaning 'chain' or 'sequence' in Arabic – marks the next chapter in the evolution of the Dalloul Collection and Dr Basel's Dalloul collaboration with Christie's. Renowned for its extraordinary breadth and depth, the Dalloul Collection offers a captivating journey through Arab art history, paying tribute to the region's rich cultural heritage and bold diversity. The 20 highlights featured in the auction embody this vision, showcasing masterpieces by Mohamed Melehi, Mahmoud Saïd, Dia Al-Azzawi and Marwan. The collection is widely acknowledged to hold important works with a particular focus on Lebanon and Palestine, the ancestral homelands of the Dalloul family, exemplified by the works of Huguette Caland, Paul Guiragossian, Samia Halaby and Kamal Boullata.

The Live Sale will also feature important works from other notable private collections, including evocative homages to the landscape: La colline de Mekarzel (Mekarzel Hill) by Mahmoud Saïd, Soukhour Meyrouba (The Rocks of Meyrouba) by Aref El Rayess, and Untitled by Etel Adnan.

The Live Sale is complemented by an Online Sale running from 28 October to 11 November. Together, these auctions represent a marquee moment in the international art calendar, reflecting the vitality and diversity of artistic production from North Africa, Egypt, the Levant, Iraq and Iran. The sales present established and emerging collectors with the opportunity to acquire museum-quality works, as well as pieces at more accessible price points, ranging from paintings and works on paper to photography and sculpture.

Dubai Preview Highlights

A selection of works from the Live Sale will be on view at Christies Dubai from 3-10 October, offering a first look at magnificent pieces from the Dalloul Collection and other distinguished owners. Highlights include:

• Paul Guiragossian, Automne (Autumn) (1989, est. £120,000–180,000) – A large-scale masterpiece showcasing Guiragossian's mastery of colour and sculptural brushwork. Shaped by his experience of exile and displacement, the artist blends naturalism, modernism, and figurative abstraction to explore the human condition. This work presents a rare opportunity to acquire a seminal piece by the artist ahead of his centenary.

• Aref El Rayess, Soukhour Meyrouba (The Rocks of Meyrouba) (1977, est. £100,000–150,000) – Painted just before the artist's iconic Desert series, the present work captures the serenity of the landscape of the northern Lebanese village of Meyrouba. The artist was the subject of retrospective exhibitions at Sharjah Art Museum in 2022 and IVAM, Valencia in 2023, while last year selected works from his Desert Series were shown at the 60th Venice Biennale.

• Mahmoud Said, La colline de Mekarzel (Mekarzel Hill) (1955, £60,000-80,000) – A mesmerising landscape by one of Egypt's most celebrated painters, Said effortlessly captures the rolling hills of Lebanon, where he spent many of his summers. The work was previously owned by Egypt's former prime minister Hussein Pasha Sirri and included in Said's 1960 and 1964 retrospective exhibitions in Alexandria.

• Samia Halaby, Gardenia (1978, est. £50,000–70,000 – Gardenia is part of Halaby's much sought-after Diagonal Flight series in which she explores geometric abstraction through diagonal lines and contrasting colours resulting in a dynamic spatial interplay. Inspired by natural symmetry and Islamic geometry, it blurs the boundaries between volume, surface, light and shadow. Halaby received a special mention at the 60th Venice Biennale, and her pioneering contributions to digital art were recently featured in Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet at Tate Modern, London.

Dr. Ridha Moumni, Chairman, Christie's Middle East and Africa, comments: “The Middle Eastern art market remains dynamic globally. Following our recent summer exhibition at Christie's in London, Marwan: A Soul in Exile, this auction further demonstrates the vitality of the region's art scene and the continuing resonance of its voices. To once again be entrusted with masterpieces from the Dalloul Collection is an honour and a sign of trust for Christie's, offering international collectors a rare opportunity to acquire works of such exceptional significance.”

Marie-Claire Thijsen, Head of Sale, Specialist, Christie's London and Dubai, remarks: “This sale celebrates the extraordinary richness and diversity of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art. Showcasing these highlights in Dubai allows us to share their cultural and historical significance with an international audience, ahead of what promises to be an exciting sale.”