Dubai: When Christie’s resumes its Middle East auction in Dubai this year, one of the expensive art pieces that will be up for grabs will be a painting by a Palestinian artist initially estimated at Dh1 million.
Showing an elderly Palestinian man with a huge sack on his back in the shape of an eye, the art piece is said to be one of the most iconic Middle Eastern images ever produced.
It also shows a view of Jerusalem around the Dome of the Rock, Islam’s third holiest site, and is linked with the notions of Palestinian identity and Jerusalem.
Titled ‘Jamal Al Mahamel II’ or Camel of Burdens II, the artwork is a second version, done in 2005, of the original painting from 1973 by Suleiman Mansour.
The painting’s sale price is initially set at $200,000 to 300,000, or Dh734,000 to Dh1.1 million, but actual sale price will likely be higher.
The first version of the painting was presented as a gift to the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi by the former Libyan ambassador to London and it was believed to have been destroyed during the 1986 bombing in Libya.
It was suggested in 2005 that Mansour redo the same painting.
“The second version shows some change – on a factual level, porters working in Jerusalem’s Old City advised [the artist] to change the type of the rope used by the old man. On a more esoteric level, Mansour wanted to integrate more of the city’s Christian motifs, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which he had left out of the original because his concerns in the 1973 painting were primarily political,” Christie’s said.
Christie’s auction in Dubai has attracted a growing number of buyers from the Middle East and around the world. Last year, expensive watches auctioned at Christie’s were sold at 95 per cent, as new local and international clients registered for the sales.
The biggest seller was a platinum Patek Philippe emerald-set perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch, which was sold for Dh1.2 million.
“These very encouraging Middle Eastern figures underline the importance of this region and the growing appetite for Middle Eastern art here as well as in the rest of the world and demonstrate that Dubai is the hub of the global market for Middle Eastern art,” said Michael Jeha, managing director Christie’s Dubai.
“We are looking forward to our 18th sale season on 18th and 19th of March, when we will offer the iconic work by Suleiman Mansour and several important private collections,” he added.