A piece by the late Safeya Binzagr, widely known as the mother of Saudi art, set a new record for a Saudi artist at the latest Riyadh sale run by Sotheby’s.
The auction house’s second Saudi event brought in a total of $19.5 million, led by Arab modernists and regional names — Binzagr’s 1968 painting Coffee Shop on Madina Road went for $1.6 million — as well as a $1.3 million Picasso lot. Nearly a third of buyers were from Saudi Arabia. The sale took place against a busy cultural backdrop in the Gulf: the Diriyah Contemporary Arts Biennale is running until early May, and Art Basel opens in Doha tomorrow.
Despite a budding ecosystem, there are also signs of strain in the kingdom’s arts sector amid wider government spending cuts. A $200 million Saudi investment deal with New York’s Metropolitan Opera remains in limbo, and there have been reports from the industry of delayed payments from the kingdom.