The Shahnameh or ‘Book of Kings’ is the Persian national epic and the folio in ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, depicts Faridun in the guise of a dragon testing his sons and was completed at the royal Safavid atelier circa 1525-1535. Photo: Sotheby's.
On the day of 6th April, 2011 Auction House Sotheby’s sets record sale £7.4 Million for an Islamic artwork – an illustrated folio from the Shahnameh made for Shah Tahmasp of Persia, universally acknowledged as one of the supreme illustrated manuscripts of any period or culture and among the greatest works of art in the world, sold for the outstanding and well above estimate sum of £7,433,250. This exceptional illustrated leaf saw competition for almost 10 minutes from no fewer than seven bidders, both in the saleroom and on the telephones, and finally sold for nearly four times pre-sale expectations to an anonymous bidder on the telephone (pre-sale estimate: £2-3 million).
Commenting on the price achieved for the illustrated leaf in the Stuart Cary Welch Collection: Part 1. Arts of the Islamic World Sale, Edward Gibbs, Senior Director and Head of Sotheby’s Middle East Department, said: “The sale of the Shahnameh leaf today represented a rare opportunity for collectors and connoisseurs of islamic art and bidders from across the globe competed tenaciously to acquire this unique work of extraordinary quality and beauty. The sum achieved of £7.4 million for the folio represents a new auction record for an Islamic Work of Art and is testament to the passion and taste of the true scholar-connoisseur, Stuart Cary Welch, who assembled this remarkable collection.”
nice….i like to know why arab collectors pay millions for rare islamic work of arts in london and do not pay 100 000 in lebanon for extr rare same art items???
I have also question: Why somebody wants to sell the same islamic artworks in Lebanon for only 100.000 when they can be sold in London for millions ?
1/you must have a uk vat number to be able to sell in uk..we dont
2/ a collector from saiida sold one of his rare items for 15% of its value last month to pay hospital for his sick wife..do this make the rare item no good or we suspect it for cheap price???
3/auctions had limited items number for each auction so they put items for partners mostly and not for non uk dealers….
cheap dont mean every time that the item is bad…..
1) Christie’s and Sotheby’s \ they can sell any item in UK for you and take their percentage as the dealer’s commission.
2) How we can suspect something if didn`t know about which item exactly we are talking about ?
3) I know very good auction system, someetimes they even pay extra to have something really rare in their auction.
and sure cheap doesn’t mean bad, but so many fake things are around that`s why nobody will pay huge amount for something without guarantee of experts.
true….we dont have lab in arab countries that can end any disagrements
some items can be coped like those made from silver or gold..etc and paintings too..but some glass work of art are extremly hard to make..take a look for ex at the mughal glass…or islamic calligraphy on glass it is hard if it is a carving or made by mold…we are talking about a low prices like 3000$ ..but do we have real arab expert around???