11th Tehran Auction on July 5

EghtesadOnline: The 11th Tehran Auction is scheduled for July 5 at the Parsian Azadi Hotel with 80 classic and modern works going on sale—23 of whom are by living artists.

News ID: ۷۴۷۷۳۰

01 July 2019

The auction was launched in 2012 as an independent and private initiative to introduce the best in Iranian art, ranging from established and emerging Iranian artists to art collectors and the global audience, Mehr News Agency reported.

The event is aimed at addressing the increasing interest in modern and contemporary Iranian art and facilitating the acquisition of quality works in reliable ways.

The event also aims to support the domestic art market as a key to the international market. The auction closely collaborates with local art galleries and collectors to ensure a vast selection of paintings, sculptures and photographs, Financial Tribune reported.

The 10th edition of Tehran Auction racked up an estimated $8.1 million in proceeds, more than double compared to the previous contemporary art sale in January 2018.

Monir Farmanfarmaian set a new record for a local female artist after an untitled mirror mosaic of hers fetched almost $1 million, Aljazeera reported using the government exchange rate of 4,200 rials per US dollar back then.

The greenback traded for 130,800 rials on Sunday.

The artist, who once hobnobbed with the likes of Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock in New York died on April 20. She topped 104 other artists, whose works were presented at the auction held in January.

Before the auction, there was speculation that the selloff would attract fewer and less enthusiastic buyers following the return of US sanctions, which precipitated the plunge of the Iranian rial against the US dollar.

But as it turned out, buyers and spectators, including many prominent figures in Iran's art and entertainment industries, packed Tehran's Parsian Azadi Hotel, where the auction was held. Many of the attendees, estimated to be over 1,000, were left standing and craning their necks, as they watched the three-hour-long proceedings go into high gear.

A second mirror mosaic piece also fetched an estimated $690,000.

An oil calligraphy entitled Pi Rouz G sold for about $845,000.

Birds, a sculpture by the late Iranian artist and theater director, Bahman Mohasses, was sold for close to $631,000.