3 min read · 01 Feb 2026

Coffee Shop in Madina Road by Safeya Binzagr sold for $2.06m. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
A record breaking work by Safeya Binzagr was the headline sale at Sotheby's Origins II auction on January 31 in Saudi Arabia.
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.
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.
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.
4 works were withdrawn before the sale, including: Jean Dubuffet, Le soleil les décolore (1947) estimated at $800,000 (low) to $1.2m (high).
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Withdrawn: This happens when a seller decides, for whatever reason, to withdraw a work before the bidding begins.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.
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