Friday, May 03, 2013
Dubai: A rant by John Lennon penned in a letter to Paul McCartney circa 1971 could commands $60,000 (Dh220,200). Another by Marilyn Monroe could get bids of $50,000.
But celebrity memorabilia, such an integral part of the global auction scene, is yet to come under the hammer here. Is the Middle East collector less inclined to seek out such buys?
“All auction houses do not necessarily deal in memorabilia, and the ones who do have not reached our shores,” said Dadiba Pundole, who is setting up an art gallery in Dubai. “Some large firms in New York do hold specialised memorabilia auctions, but it is an exceptional event and not considered mainstream.
“Collectors of memorabilia are probably better off bidding and buying on dedicated memorabilia-based online auction sites.”
Guess the auction space in these markets will be dominated by art and artifacts. But, not surprisingly, this broad spectrum comes with multiple preferences on the part of collectors.
“In any developing market such as ours, there is a distinctive local flavour — some investors may be interested in art from a specific country other than their own, but expatriates living here will largely veer towards art and artists from their native lands,” said Pundole.
“All markets are largely locally dominated [in terms of artist preferences] to address the local collector base and participants, who include both buyers and sellers. In any case, auctioneers will probably have tested our market and realised this.
International auctions
“As for serious investors [seeking international artists], many prefer to attend international auctions in London or New York, as attendance forms part of the overall art buying experience, and the pleasure it provides.”
For its Dubai events, Christie’s focus has never veered from offering up art and artists from within the region. And it has no intention to rewrite the script.
“Our Dubai sales continue to be a dependable platform for Middle Eastern artists to show their best work to our broad and active base of international collectors,” said Michael Jeha of Christie’s in the Middle East.
“The introduction of our part II sales in 2011 has proven popular with the next generation of buyers and allows us to support emerging contemporary artists by providing them with an international platform for their works.
“While we may be based in Dubai, we have a regional outlook — in our last sales we had sellers from 15 countries and interest in the sale from 22 countries. Dubai is a hub, like Hong Kong, serving the whole region.”
By Manoj Nair, Associate Editor
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
