The Turkish and Islamic week from Sotheby's has realised a total of £16.32m ($26.34m) in London.
The Orientalist sale on April 24 got proceedings well under way, with an artist record set for Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky. His View of Constantinople and the Bosphorus sold for £3.23m against an estimate of £1.2m-1.8m, following energised telephone bidding.
 Aivazovsky's View of Constantinople and the Bosphorus |
The sale, which showcased artworks depicting scenes from Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa realised £5.5m.
Sotheby's Eye for Opulence: Art of the Ottoman Empire auction followed, spanning more than 400 years of Ottoman art, with a realisation of £2.75m. You can see more results from the sale here.
The market has seen heightened interest in Ottoman collectibles in recent years, with sales expected to increase even further as demand grows for the unique styles of the former Turkish empire.
A beautiful and rare illuminated leaf from the Shahnameh of Shah Isma'il II brought the top lot in the Arts of the Islamic world sale, after a hammer price of £1.38m, against a pre-sale estimate of just £60,000-80,000. The diverse selection offered, ranging from weaponry to ceramics, brought the biggest profits of the week with a total of £6.45m.
The Contemporary Turkish Art sale closed the ground-breaking Sotheby's event with yet another record. Nejad Melih Devrim's Abstract Composition sold for £735,650, nearly doubling the artist's previous record of £397,875.
With the country one of the few economies to prosper in the global economic crisis, demand for Turkish antiques and in particular, contemporary art has increased dramatically. All three of the major auction houses have recently held Turkish art sales to cater for the country's new buyers.
It's a similar story in the Middle East, where the region's emergence as a business hub has seen dramatic results for auction houses. Christie's Dubai headquarters experienced a 153% improvement in sales in 2010, the fastest growth of the year.
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