Modern & Contemporary Middle East

S otheby’s is the largest auction house to offer specialist sales of Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern art and provides unrivalled expertise and market intelligence in the field, with representatives across London, New York, Dubai, and Riyadh. Sotheby’s has consistently achieved outstanding results for artists in this category; our sales of Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern art have achieved stellar results, broken sale records, and set new industry benchmarks. We champion both established and emerging artists and are dedicated to supporting the wider artistic and cultural ecosystem – be it artist estates, museums, or the scholars who bring academic and historical depth to the category.

Sotheby’s established online and live Modern & Contemporary Middle East sales take place in London biannually, in the Spring and Autumn. Our travelling exhibitions in Dubai, our new sale platform in Riyadh, and our educational initiatives across the region ensure that this category reaches the broadest global audience. In 2025 we saw engagement from 144 bidders from across 23 countries. 33% of buyers were new to Sotheby’s, demonstrating that demand for high-quality and rare works of art continues to grow.

Following the re-introduction of the dedicated sales to the London auction calendar in 2016, Sotheby’s opened its Dubai office in 2017, seeing a significant increase in regional buyers over five years. In 2025, Sotheby’s was the first international auction house to establish a permanent presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, opening in Riyadh’s Al Faisaliah Tower as an invaluable resource for local clients. Our 2025 and 2026 Origins sales – the first major international art and luxury auctions in the Kingdom – achieved a combined total of $10 million for the Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern art category alone, and 5 new auction world records were established for these artists. Sotheby’s continues to hold the record for the highest auction result in the region, with our 2013 Contemporary Art auction in Doha achieving $15.2 million.

Our collectors are truly global and span across four continents. Over the past 3 years we have seen the number of regional participants in our sales increase by 61% buyers and 51% bidders. Our success in the market underscores both the long-standing expertise and strength of our international team and the unparalleled, industry-leading social media and marketing campaigns that support it.

In addition to our auctions, we conduct private sales and organise selling and non-selling exhibitions across our London and Dubai offices.