DUBAI: Auction house Sotheby’s announced on Tuesday that it is auctioning two sculptures by Egyptian pioneer Mahmoud Mokhtar this month.
The artworks have never been auctioned.
They were bought directly from the artist, who died in 1934 the age of 43, by illustrious collector Hafez Afifi Pasha – an influential politician and the first Egyptian delegate to the United Nations – and have remained in the same family for decades, unseen by the public until now.
Embedded in Egypt’s cultural sphere, Afifi was one of Mokhtar’s great patrons – funding him for his most famous sculpture “Egypt Awakened,” also known as “Nahdat Misr,” a triumphant representation of Egypt’s past and present, as well as founding the Friends of Mahmoud Mokhtar Foundation after the artist’s death.
The first sculpture, titled “Ibn El-Balad” (estimated at around $107,000- 131,000) was Mokhtar’s university graduation project.
Dating to 1910, it was among the first sculptures he created, and marks the pivotal moment that he evolved into the artist he is renowned as today.
The second, “Arous El-Nil,” from 1929 is a Pharaonic head of a woman, a marriage between Ancient Egyptian aesthetics and Art Deco (estimated at around $143,000-214,000). It is the bust of a full-length sculpture in the collection of Paris’ Musée du Jeu de Paume.
The bidding will be online and will go live from March 23-30.
