$2.7 MILLION WORK BREAKS WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR FAHR EL-NISSA ZEID & IS SECOND HIGHEST PRICE FOR ANY MIDDLE EASTERN WORK SOLD AT AUCTION

WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR A
FEMALE MIDDLE EASTERN ARTIST

Auctioneer, Jussi Pylkkänen, President of Christie’s Europe, Middle East, Russia and India sells El-Nissa Zeid’s Break of the Atom and Vegetal Life for $2,741,00 at Christie’s 15th auction of Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art in Dubai.

Dubai – Christie’s, the undisputed market leader in Middle Eastern modern and contemporary art, established the highest price ever paid for a painting by an artist from the region when Fahr El-Nissa Zeid’s Break of the Atom and Vegetal Life sold for $2,741,000 (AED10,064,952) in their Dubai saleroom this evening. This is the second highest price ever made for a work by a Middle Eastern artist after Parviz Tanavoli’s bronze sculpture Wall (Oh Persepolis) sold in these rooms in 2008 for $2.8 million.

The sale of the piece by Fahr El-Nissa Zeid (Turkish / Jordanian, 1900-1991) also makes her the highest valued female artist from the Middle East far surpassing the previous record for her work of $1 million.

Break of the Atom and Vegetal Life, painted in 1962 is considered the most important work by the artist. Inspired by a synthesis of Islamic calligraphic aesthetic traditions, Fahr El-Nissa Zeid employs an intricate use of colours and lines in a monumental and harmonious composition whereby purples morph into violets, while greens, reds and blues ring with violent blacks.