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Millon Middle-East, which has held 7 regular sale seasons since 2021 in Paris, announced that its summer sale will move forward on Duplex between Beirut and Paris in July. The auction of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, in partnership with the Mark Hachem Gallery, will be conducted in dollars under the hammer of Alexandre Millon from the Mothy Club on July 6, 2023, at 6 p.m. Beirut time, with a special focus on Lebanese Modern Art.
The very first Middle-East Modern and Contemporary Art sale will be held between the two French and Lebanese capitals. The sale, led by the MILLON house, offers 107 works by 80 artists who have been selected among the most recognized and influential artists in the Middle East and North Africa. This sale totals a low estimate of USD 1,100,000.
For its first sale in Beirut, the Millon auction house presents an impactful selection of 107 artworks of Middle Eastern and North African artists, with 63 artworks offering a special focus on Lebanese modern art. Millon is delighted that this event will be taking place only a few weeks following the reopening of the Sursock Museum. The recent reopening of the museum, as well as the presence of collectors both on-site in the Middle East and in diaspora, and the stimulating environment of galleries and local auction houses, testify to a common desire to showcase the art of Lebanon. Joint efforts to achieve this sale slowed down following the explosion at the port of Beirut in 2020 and its effects on the region. However, despite these circumstances, the local artistic ecosystem perseveres, and continues to express dynamism in tune with new discoveries. The cosmopolitan and historical elements of Beirut, both in the Arab art scene and in the broader art market, is another reason for Millon to gather this beautiful selection of artworks and encourage the collectors and diasporas around the world to participate, this time inside the city of Beirut.
The catalogue of this event reveals hidden treasures, and not least of them is the great honor granted to our establishment to display works created by pioneers of modern Lebanese art. Some of these artists were shown at Le Salon d’Automne at the Sursock Museum in the 1960s. Among the works highlighted in this catalogue, there will be a focus on some of the artists in the Sursock Museum’s permanent collection, whose work was exhibited in I am uncultivated! The Autumn Show and the National Canon in the museum. Some such artworks are those by Mohammad Sakr, Aref El Rayess, Mounir Najm, Yvette Achkar and more, as well as renowned artists such as Chafic Abboud and Paul Guiragossian, among others.
A visual feast of works by the modern masters who helped to shape art from the Middle East will be unveiled at the opening of the pre-sale exhibition for the Millon Summer Beirut auction. One of the most important pieces in the sale is an impressive work by Shafic Abboud (Lebanese, 1926-2004- shown on page 1) which was used as the back cover illustration of the artist’s monograph published in 2006 following a major exhibition in Paris, also published in Art from Lebanon, Modern and Contemporary Artists 1880-1975 in 2012. Additionally, this work was shown in the exhibition of Beirut, Lo 46, Pieces for a Museum Featuring: Paul Guiragossian and Shafic Abboud, from April 7 until 22, 2010. L’Ebloui comes from a distinguished Lebanese private collection with an estimated value of USD100,000- 120,000. Another key work, by Moroccan artist Mohamed Melehi (Morocco 1936 – 2020), whose work rarely appears for sale at auction, is Composition from 2019, painted a year before his death. Airfaeuu, the Arabic word for “elevation,” is the title of the work of Shakir al Said, painted in 1974, just one year after the Kippur war in 1973. Another important modern piece is Louay Kayali’s (Syria 1934 – 1978) Figura Sulla Spiaggia (Figure On The Beach), 1960.
