Mahmoud Said's Pecheurs a Rashid (Rosette) was the star lot at the first day of Christie's Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art auction in Dubai on October 23.
The 1941 work beat its $600,000 high estimate by 36.4%, selling for $818,500 - the typically Egyptian scene of fishermen unloading their catch clearly catching the eyes of bidders.
 Said’s Pecheurs a Rashid (Rosette) made $818,500 |
Egyptian Said took up his brush late in life. He worked reluctantly as a lawyer until the age of 50 before perusing his dream of being an artist.
The record for a Said artwork was set by his Les Chadoufs in 2010, when it sold for $2.4m at Christie's.
It remains the highest auction price ever paid for a painting by a Middle Eastern artist.
The auction's second highest lot went to Iranian Sohrab Sepehri's 1972 Untitled work from his Tree Trunks series, which sold for $266,500, just above its $250,000 high estimate.
The auction also set five individual artist world records, with Ramazan Bayrakoglu, Shirazeh Houshiary, Hayv Kahraman, Timo Nasseri and Gazbia Sirry all setting new benchmarks.
Michael Jeha, the managing director of Christie's Middle East, remarked: "The market reacted extremely positively to the masters of Middle Eastern art and attracted a lot of interest, which resulted in 50% of the lots selling above high estimate.
"It was also encouraging to see interest from international and national buyers evenly balanced."
86% of lots sold, achieving $3.6m in all.
Click here to learn about the investment potential of the art world.
