February 2, 2024
The 18th Tehran Auction of contemporary Iranian art, held online for the first time, grossed about 620 billion rials (over $1.24 million) on December 15.
That was a long way from the $8 million realized in 2017 at the then current exchange rate. The dollar totals have generally been falling since then.
This year, of the total of 114 artworks by 113 contemporary, veteran and young artists specializing in painting, sculpture and photography, all but two works were sold, Honaronline reported.
A Bijar rug with LED neons created by veteran painter and sculptor Parviz Tanavoli titled “Farangi Woman on Persian Carpet II” in 2019 was sold for 55 billion rials ($110,000) to become the priciest work sold.
Works by painters Aydin Aghdashloo and Massoud Arab-shahi fetched the next highest price, going under the hammer at 46.2 billion rials ($92,400) each.
Aghdashloo’s work was a gouache-on-cardboard painting titled “Enigma 92” dating back to 2012 and Arabshahi’s untitled artwork was mixed media on canvas painted in 1986.
The only artist who had two works at the event was the veteran painter Parviz Kalantari. His two untitled artworks finished in the 5th and 13th priciest places.
The Tehran Auction was launched in 2012 as an independent and private initiative. In previous years, the Tehran Auction held separate live contemporary and modern art auctions in summer and winter, but this year the organizers scheduled one online auction and combined the two events.