The sale totaled $8.94 million, with 88.2% of offered lots sold. Christie’s record announcement includes medium-specific results and auction debuts, setting benchmarks for those artists.
Christie’s reported 9 auction records at its debut Abu Dhabi fine art sale on 1 November 2026, including a medium-specific record for Armenian-Lebanese painter Paul Guiragossian, whose Noces (Wedding) sold for $486,400. The announcement, relayed by ARTnews, also includes artists making their first appearance at auction.
MAWASIM: 20 Years of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art took place at The Abu Dhabi EDITION hotel. It followed a week of exhibitions and events and marked 20 years since Christie’s first auction in the United Arab Emirates, held in Dubai in 2006.
Christie’s put the sale total at $8.94 million. ARTnews said eight of the 68 lots offered went unsold, giving a sell-through rate—the share of offered lots that found buyers—of 88.2%.
The National described a 70-lot sale selection, distinct from the number actually offered. Artmena gave a conflicting closing count: 60 sold out of 69 offered, or 87%.
Christie’s named Jellal Ben Abdallah, Faisel Laibi Sahi and Juliana Seraphim among the nine artists in its record announcement. It qualified the other results: Guiragossian and Samia Halaby achieved records for particular media, rather than overall artist records. Lebanese artist Nabil Kanso and Emirati artists Rami Farook, Fatma Lootah and Afra Al Dhaheri made auction debuts.
An artist record compares a price with that artist’s earlier auction results. A medium-specific record applies only to works made in a particular material or technique; an auction debut establishes a first auction price. Neither is the same as selling above a presale estimate, the auction house’s expected price range.
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Ben Abdallah was a Tunisian painter. Iraqi artist Sahi’s Baghdad Café depicts a panorama of a Baghdad coffee house. Palestinian-American artist Halaby is known for abstract painting and computer art; Palestinian painter Seraphim’s surrealist imagery addressed homeland, femininity, memory and identity. Iranian artist Farmanfarmaian combined Iranian geometric patterns and cut-glass mosaic techniques with modern geometric abstraction.
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s Variations on the Hexagon led the sale but was not part of Christie’s record list. The Iranian artist’s work is a mirror mosaic with blue glass, reverse-glass painting and plaster on wood.
The prices below include the buyer’s premium, a fee added to the winning bid, or hammer price. Estimates exclude that fee, as Artmena specifies, so the two columns are not on the same fee basis.
| Artist and work | Price including premium | Presale estimate | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Variations on the Hexagon (2006) | $844,800 | $150,000–$250,000 | Sale leader; above high estimate |
| Fahrelnissa Zeid, Composition (1948–1949) | $524,800 | $500,000–$700,000 | Within estimate; not on the record list |
| Faisel Laibi Sahi, Baghdad Café (The Coffee Shop) (2016), acrylic on canvas | $512,000 | $400,000–$600,000 | Artist included in the record announcement; within estimate |
| Ali Banisadr, Homo Deus (2018) | $512,000 | $350,000–$550,000 | Within estimate; not on the record list |
| Paul Guiragossian, Noces (Wedding) (1958–1959), oil on masonite | $486,400 | $300,000–$500,000 | Medium-specific record; within estimate |
| Samia Halaby, Yesterday (1978), oil on canvas | $358,400 | $300,000 high estimate | Medium-specific record; above high estimate |
| Juliana Seraphim, Femme Fleur (1973) | $83,200 | — | Artist included in the record announcement |
Christie’s said more than 30% of registrants were millennials or Gen Z and 37% were new to the auction house.
Anthea Peers, Christie’s president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told The National that the house wanted to build on the sale and contribute to Abu Dhabi’s art sector.
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