Starting tomorrow, Sotheby’s will stage a historic exhibition in Abu Dhabi, unveiling a group of six masterpieces collectively valued at $150 million. Running from 1–2 October at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, the showcase marks not only Sotheby’s first-ever fine art exhibition in the UAE capital, but also the most valuable exhibition the auction house has ever staged in the region.
The presentation will feature works by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Frida Kahlo, Edvard Munch, René Magritte, and Camille Pissarro, artists whose names define the canon of modern art. Each piece is distinguished not only by its artistic significance but also by its storied provenance, with works drawn from the private collections of some of the world’s most influential cultural patrons, including Leonard A. Lauder, Cindy and Jay Pritzker, and Kay and Matthew Bucksbaum.
Among the highlights is Frida Kahlo’s El sueño (La cama) (1940), an intimate meditation on mortality and rebirth painted during a period of personal upheaval, poised to set a new auction record for the artist and possibly for any work by a woman artist. Vincent van Gogh’s Romans Parisiens (Les Livres jaunes) (1887), one of the largest still lifes of his career, is another centrepiece and has long been regarded as a symbolic self-portrait and one of only two book still lifes remaining in private hands.
Other works on view include Paul Gauguin’s La Maison de Pen du, gardeuse de vache (1889), painted in Brittany during the emergence of his signature style; Camille Pissarro’s Bords de l’Oise à Pontoise (1872), an Impressionist landscape that once featured in the landmark 1913 Armory Show; Edvard Munch’s Sankthansnatt Johannisnacht (circa 1901–03), a luminous Midsummer landscape from Leonard Lauder’s collection; and René Magritte’s Le Jockey perdu (1942), a rare revisitation of his first true Surrealist subject.
None of these works have ever been exhibited in the Middle East, and three have not been seen publicly in over half a century. After Abu Dhabi, the exhibition will travel to London and Paris, before culminating in New York in mid-November for Sotheby’s marquee auctions coinciding with the opening of its new headquarters in the historic Breuer Building on Madison Avenue.
In parallel, Sotheby’s Dubai will host its own exhibition until 3 October, spotlighting highlights from upcoming London sales of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern art (28 October) and Arts of the Islamic World and India (20 October). Featured pieces include works by Fahrelnissa Zeid and Inji Efflatoun, alongside rare artefacts such as an early 18th-century illuminated Qur’an and a 17th-century Ottoman throne ornament.
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