Middle Eastern art is not one story but many: the courts of Persia and the Ottoman empire, the pilgrim roads to Mecca and Medina, the merchants of Cairo and Damascus, and — in our own century — painters and sculptors in Tehran, Beirut, Baghdad and Cairo who have made the region one of the most dynamic in the contemporary art world.
From the pilgrim road
Among the most evocative objects we handle are Hajj certificates, painted scrolls recording a pilgrim’s journey with schematic views of the holy sites. Alongside them sit prayer books, astrolabes, tilework and textiles that show how the sacred geography of the region was carried home across thousands of miles.
The modern movement
The twentieth century saw Middle Eastern artists absorb Paris and New York while returning to calligraphy, geometry and folk tradition. Our Contemporary Middle Eastern Art sections bring these works — many from private collections formed in the 1960s and 1970s — to an international audience of collectors and institutions.
Building a collection
Whether your interest lies in a fourteenth-century Mamluk bowl or a canvas painted in the last decade, our specialists can help. Every lot in our sales is catalogued with full provenance where known, and condition reports are available on request ahead of each auction.
