Sotheby's Announces Its First Fine Art Auction in Abu Dhabi

Sotheby's has just announced its first fine art auction in Abu Dhabi. Titled Breaking Ground, the sale takes place on 10 December 2026 as the centrepiece of the second edition of its Abu Dhabi Collectors' Week, and it puts Claude Monet and Andy Warhol in the same room as Emirati pioneers Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Hassan Sharif and Najat Makki. For our region it is another sign that the big auction houses now see the Gulf as a place to sell art, not only luxury goods.

For anyone less familiar with it, Collectors' Week launched last December at the St Regis on Saadiyat Island with jewellery, handbags, watches, cars and real estate, and no art for sale. It made $133.4 million, which Sotheby's described as the largest debut for any new market in its history, The Art Newspaper reported. That came a year after Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund invested $1 billion in the company. This year's edition has six auctions at the new Saadiyat Grove Experience Centre: the luxury sales on 9 December, including around 50 watches from the single-owner Shapes of Cartier collection, followed by fine art the next day.

So, what is in the sale? The National reports that the international names include Monet's Prunes et Abricots, painted between 1882 and 1885 for the Paris apartment of his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel and estimated at $2 million to $2.6 million, and Warhol's Ads portfolio of 1985. There is also Christo's drawing The Mastaba of Abu Dhabi (Project for UAE), 2007, estimated at $180,000 to $250,000, a design for the monumental structure of oil barrels that Christo and Jeanne-Claude planned for the Liwa desert.

Interestingly, the emphasis is just as much on the region. Ibrahim and Sharif, both pioneers of contemporary art in the UAE, are joined by Najat Makki, whose A Woman's State of Being (1988) is estimated at $30,000 to $50,000. Sotheby's says it is working with the artists and their estates to bring Nujoom Al-Ghanem and Nasser Al-Yousif to auction for the first time.

Women artists are a deliberate thread. Etel Adnan's Ta'ir al-Nar (Firebird) by May Muzaffar (1998) is estimated at $50,000 to $70,000, and Huguette Caland, Inji Efflatoun, Fahrelnissa Zeid, Mona Saudi, Gazbia Sirry and Zarina are all in the sale, alongside Paul Guiragossian, Farid Belkahia and Aref El Rayess, according to Canvas and The National. "We also wanted to introduce names that may not be as familiar, but we felt would resonate with art lovers here, including a particular focus on women artists, some of whom are making their auction debuts," said Yasmeen Gailani, Sotheby's specialist and head of sale, in a statement to Canvas.

Katia Boueiz, head of Sotheby's UAE and chairman, Middle East, told The National that the title comes from the idea of artists who paved the way for later generations. "What I hope this auction will achieve is to introduce these artists to a much wider audience, whether it is the Emirati artists being introduced to international collectors, or vice versa," she said. "Ultimately, our ambition is not simply to 'bring' the international art market to Abu Dhabi, but to help connect and embed Abu Dhabi even more deeply within the international art market."

The timing is no accident. Christie's holds its first fine art auction in Abu Dhabi on 1 November, the inaugural Frieze Abu Dhabi runs from 19 to 22 November, and Breaking Ground falls the day before Guggenheim Abu Dhabi opens on 11 December. "Once again, we will be in the midst of a thriving cultural agenda in the emirate," said Josh Pullan, executive vice president of Sotheby's global luxury division and head of Middle East, in a statement to Canvas.

Perhaps what is most significant is the shape of the sale. Last year Abu Dhabi saw art on Sotheby's walls but could not bid on it; this year a single sale will test whether collectors in the Gulf will pay for Emirati modernists and women artists from across the Arab world alongside blue-chip Western names. Further details of the lots will be released in November, and public exhibitions, talks and masterclasses will precede the sales. That said, the estimates for the regional works remain modest next to the Monet, and the sell-through rate will tell us more than the headline total.

We're eager to see how the room responds.

Breaking Ground takes place at Saadiyat Grove Experience Centre, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, on 10 December 2026, following the Collectors' Week luxury auctions on 9 December.

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