Arabs Beat Damien Hirst in Christie's Sale of Contemporary Art, Yazzy's at www.walliamverdult.com

Acccording to Bloomberg.com, Christie's International sold $15 million of contemporary works mainly by Arab and Iranian artists in Dubai last night, with records set for Middle East artists.

The sale at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel, Christie's third in the Persian Gulf emirate, produced an auction record for an Arab work of art when Ahmed Mustapha's ``Qu'ranic Polyptych of Nine Panels'' sold for $657,000. Mustapha held the previous record of $284,800, set at Christie's first Dubai auction in May 2006. (All prices for last night's sale include commission.)

Farhad Moshiri's ``One World/Yek Donia,'' a map of the world studded with Swarovski crystals, broke the record for an Iranian work of art at auction, fetching $601,000, more than seven times the high estimate of $80,000. Charles Hossein Zenderoudi's ``MIR + 54 + BZ + S'' was sold for $481,000, a record for the artist.

``Tonight, the young market here in Dubai came of age,'' said Jussi Pylkkanen, president of Christie's Europe.

Enriched by a 10-year boom in art prices, auction houses are expanding in emerging markets including Hong Kong and Moscow where newly rich billionaires are buying up paintings. Crude oil, the Middle East's main source of revenue, rose above $94 per barrel in New York for the first time today, and has nearly quadrupled in price during the past four years.

All the Lebanese and North African artists set records also in Dubai last night. Contemporary Western art didn't do as well. Damien Hirst's ``Atorvastatina'' was sold for $481,000, toward the lower end of the estimates, while his ``Untitled (from War Child)'' failed to meet the reserve, as did an untitled work by Italy's Alighiero Boetti.

Indiana, Warhol

Works by Robert Indiana and Andy Warhol beat their estimates, while ``Sfera con sfera'' by Arnaldo Pomodoro went for $505,000, well above its high estimate of $350,000.

Christie's raised $8.5 million at its first Dubai auction and $9.4 million at the second sale in February.

Rival Sotheby's, whose main salerooms are in New York, appointed a London-based regional manager for the Middle East earlier this year but doesn't have an office in the region. London-based Bonhams opened its first Middle East office in Dubai on Oct. 28, and plans its first auction in the region next year.

Christie's will auction $19 million of jewels and watches in Dubai tonight.