Mideast art records set at Christie's Dubai sales, Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com

According to Reuters Life! - Prices for works by contemporary Middle Eastern artists hit record highs at Christie's auction in Dubai this week, in a sign of sustained strong demand in the Gulf Arab region.

Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli - known for his pre-revolutionary works - saw his large bronze sculpture "Oh Persepolis" fetch $2.8 million.

The signature lot, covered with pictograms that recall ancient scripts and space age iconography, was the most expensive Iranian piece at auction.

In a packed Dubai auction hall, bursts of spirited bidding sent works by other top Iranian artists to new highs.

Charles Hossein Zenderoudi's oil and acrylic calligraphic piece was sold for $1.6 million, while Mohammed Ehsai's vivid work "He is Merciful" fetched $1.1 million - both auction records for modern Middle Eastern paintings.

The star Arab lot "Meditation on Three Themes from Sura Ya' Sin" was sold for $421,000, compared with the pre-sale estimate of $400,000.

The calligraphic work is by Egyptian artist Ahmed Moustafa, whose piece "Quranic Polyptych of Nine Panels" shattered the record for any contemporary Arab art at Christie's last auction in Dubai, better known for its glass skyscrapers and sprawling malls than its art scene.

The $20.1 million Christie's total, the fourth in the Gulf emirate, was the best result for any Middle Eastern contemporary art auction worldwide, as the region's artists solidified their position at the forefront of the art market.

"As a greater number of collectors become more familiar with the works of these artists both in auctions and in other outlets they become ever more discerning," said William Lawrie, head of contemporary art at Christie's.

"They also distinguish between the rarest and most important works and focus their attention on those works," he told Reuters.

Last year, Christie's, which has 14 sales rooms around the world, from New York to Hong Kong, topped its own expectations with a 522 percent increase in the commercial heart of the seven-member United Arab Emirates.

SUPER-RICH BUYERS

Middle Eastern art prices have boomed in the last couple of years fuelled by soaring oil prices and robust economies in the world's major oil-exporting region.

Newly rich buyers, who see art as a solid investment, are becoming more drawn to the cultural heritage of the region.

Buyers from the Middle East accounted for 77 percent of the total at the 198-lot sale, said Christie's, which sold 84 percent of the works offered.

"When the art market started to boom in China, the Chinese were buying their own pieces, and the same is happening here," a Cairo-based private art collector said.

"Buyers in this region want to keep something they can relate to. They would still buy western work, and look for Andy Warhol or Damien Hirst, but they are now more passionate about their own art."