«I LIKE MONEY ON THE WALL»

Whirling Dervishes, a 1929 work by Egyptian artist Mahmoud Said, set a world record for Middle Eastern art. Selling for $2,546,500, it is most expensive Middle Eastern painting ever sold.The painting was one of 30 pieces from the Dr Mohammed Said Farsi collection, all of which were sold. The work surpassed the April world auction record for the artist, also set in Dubai, by $100,000. The final part of the Farsi collection to come to auction, a group of 40 works by Egyptian artists, will be offered at Christie’s in Paris on November 9. Among the other highlights was Banquet, an oil triptych by Iranian artist Mohammed Ehsai, which sold for nearly double its estimate at $662,500, while 36-year-old Afshin Pirhashemi’s Seduction, exploring the complexities of life in contemporary Iran, reached $518,500, four times its top estimate and marking the artist out as someone to watch and perhaps invest in

-Emirates247.com