Egyptian artist Ramses Younan’s untitled painting (created in approximately 1935) sold for GBP 93,750 in the recent Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern, the first-ever Sotheby’s auction held only online on 31 March 2020 in London, UK.

The sale exceeds the estimate set for Younan’s oil on canvas (50 by 37.4 cm), which was GBP 50,000 – 70,000

For the past few years, the painting had been exhibited in several renowned museums, including Centre Pompidou (Paris, France); Kunst Sammlung (Dusseldorf, Germany); Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid, Spain); Liverpool, and Tate Liverpool (UK). It also took part in Stockholm’s Moderna Museet’s exhibition titled “Art et Liberté: Rupture, War and Surrealism in Egypt (1938-1948).

Younan (1913-1966) was one of the most renowned Egyptian painters, and a representative of the Egyptian surrealist movement.

Younan’s work has been considered among the auctions’ highlights, while several of Younan’s paintings were sold at Sotheby’s auctions, with the highest price for the artist given to another untitled work sold for $137,500 in 2015.

In its first auction held online, Sotheby reports that the participating buyers hailed from 23 countries, with half of the activity attributed to the buyers from the Middle East.

ahramonline