"For a week, Tehran Auction, the country's sole major auction house, exhibited 120 works by leading modern and contemporary Iranian artists on an upper floor of the hotel. On October 4, the sale totaled 134 trillion toman, or roughly $1.5 million before fees, a striking result in a country cut off from international banking, facing water shortages, and struggling to import essential medicines."
"Meanwhile, in London, works by Iranian artists were sold at Sotheby's and Christie's with their weakest results in years, extending a decline in Western demand. The contrast reflects how sanctions, geopolitics, and shifting tastes have created a booming, closed domestic market in Iran and a stagnant one abroad. Despite soaring inflation, currency collapse, and slow GDP growth, Tehran Auction's founder Ali Reza Sami-Azar says the real value of domestic art spending continues to rise, with more Iranians investing in art than ever before."
"The Azadi Hotel, originally built in the 1970s as the Hyatt Crown Tehran during Iran's oil-fueled boom, now stands above a city battered by June's so-called Twelve Day War, when Israeli airstrikes devastated residential districts and infrastructure, forcing millions to flee. Yet in October, this same hotel hosted a glittering million-dollar art auction. The Art Newspaper wrote that this is evidence of the Iranian elite's resilience in a nation isolated under some of the harshest sanctions ever imposed."
An upscale Tehran hotel hosted a million-dollar auction despite recent devastation from Israeli airstrikes and severe sanctions. Tehran Auction exhibited 120 works and realized roughly $1.5 million on October 4, signaling strong domestic demand amid banking isolation, water shortages, and medicine import problems. Western auction houses reported weak sales for Iranian art, creating a contrast between a booming domestic market and stagnant international interest. Economic pressures such as inflation and currency collapse coexist with rising art investment at home. Ibrahim Mahama topped ArtReview's Power 100 as the first African artist to lead the list, known for monumental installations using jute sacks and discarded textiles tied to Ghana's cocoa trade.
Read at ARTnews.com
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