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29 March 2024

Is this painting worth a million dirhams?

Painting by Ahmed Al Sudani

Published
By Majorie van Leijen

If you had a million dirham, you could go on a trip around the world, buy a house, get the car you always wanted, or buy a painting.

The painting, untitled, by Ahmed Al Sudani was auctioned this week in Dubai for an estimate of Dh1,100,000-1,800,000, the highest value lot at the Modern and Temporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish art sale organised by Christie’s.

The colorful canvas measuring 210,6 by 183 cm depicts a disfigured face surrounded by shattered forms and is the earliest in a series of works from this artist theming the dictator.

“I was thinking of painting the destruction of a monument to a dictator, and then I started to go through images of hundreds of monuments in Iraq, from the mythic Tower of Babel to the hundreds of newer monuments Saddam built in honor of himself.

“I realised that the construction of these kinds of monuments is the same as the destruction of the person responsible for making them,” says the Iraqi exile in explanation of the painting, which he realised in 2008.

Work of the same artist raised even higher numbers at Christie’s Post War and Contemporary Art sale last October in London, where al Sudani’s Baghdad was sold for 40,397.5 million dirhams and set a new world action record price.

“With every season passing, we see an increased interest from buyers in the Middle East region in art work,” said Michael Jeha, managing director of Christies Middle East at the press conference at the beginning of this week.

In 2011 alone, Christie’s had global auction and private sales that totaled 20,9332.5 billion dirham.

The auction was held on April 17th and 18th in Emirates Towers Hotel.