As always, also this year the Islamic Art Week took place in London. The Autumn series of auctions dedicated to Islamic and Middle Eastern art is now over and it’s time to draw some conclusions. No deep analysis, only a few thoughts.

The main difference between this edition of the Islamic Art week and the past ones is the number of auctions that actually took place. Most usually, there have always been four ‘core’ auctions: one at Bonhams, one at Sotheby’s and two at Christie’s. This year, instead, a total of three auctions took place: Christie’s second auction was dropped.

This resulted in fewer lots to be sold, and fewer lots to be on sale. On average, 49% of the lots on sale was eventually sold during the auctions. In April, at the spring edition of the Islamic Art Week, the 51% of lots available was sold, and during last year Fall edition, the sold lots were the 44% percent of the lots on sale. Thus, even if the absolut number of lots sold is inferior, the percentage of lots sold is not.

Nevertheless, the fact that less auctions were organized, can also mean that the market of the Islamic art is not reviving, as it looked like after the auctions of the edition Spring 2016.

For more details, here you have some graphs:

For more details on the lots, below the details of the three auctions:

Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art including Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art
23rd October 2017, London – Sale Number: 24198

Sotheby’s, Arts of the Islamic World
25th October 2017, London – Sale Number: L17223

Christie’s, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Carpets
26thOctober 2017, London – Sale Number: 14218