Safeya Binzagr Leads Sotheby's $19.56m Origins II Auction

A record breaking work by Safeya Binzagr was the headline sale at Sotheby's Origins II auction on January 31 in Saudi Arabia.

• The sale totaled $19.56m, exceeding the pre-sale high estimate.

Snapshot of the sale

• 58 works sold totaling $19.56m.
• Estimates totaled: $12.98m (low) and $18.5m (high), excluding premiums.
• The sell-through rate was 89% of the original 65 lots announced.

The star lot was: Safeya Binzagr, Coffee Shop in Madina Road (1968), which sold for $2.06m, 1275% above its $150,000 low estimate. It has been traded once in the past.

The sale set a new auction record for the Saudi Arabian artist and for a work sold at auction in the kingdom.

The outperformer in the aution was Safeya Binzagr's record breaking Coffee Shop in Madina Road (1968), which sold for 1,275% above its low estimate.

• 35 works, or 60%, sold above their high estimate.
• 20 works, or 34%, sold within their low and high estimate.
• 3 works, or 5%, sold below their low estimate.
• 0 sold with undisclosed estimates.

Guaranteed sales

14 works were backed by guarantees, including: Pablo Picasso, Paysage (1965). It sold for $1.6m, 19% below its $2m low estimate.. It has been traded 5 times in the past.

Works that did not sell

3 works were bought-in, including: Refik Anadol, Machine Hallucinations - California Landscape Studies | Artificial Realities: Winds of LA, Pacific Ocean (Undated), estimated at $350,000 (low) to $450,000 (high). It has been traded once in the past.

Withdrawn before the sale

4 works were withdrawn before the sale, including: Jean Dubuffet, Le soleil les décolore (1947) estimated at $800,000 (low) to $1.2m (high).

Terms and definitions

All results include the fees and premiums added to the price of a work of art when the auctioneer's hammer falls. Sale prices are compared to the auction house’s low estimate, which do not include premiums.

Guarantees: Sometimes an auction house guarantees to pay a seller for a work, regardless of whether the bidding reaches the reserve price, a figure that is typically confidential.

Bought-in: If there are no bids for a work, or if bidding falls short of the reserve price, the lot is unsold or “bought-in”.

Withdrawn: This happens when a seller decides, for whatever reason, to withdraw a work before the bidding begins.

Premiums: Typically a sliding-scale of charges paid in addition to the hammer price by the buyer, plus any other fees.