The expansion of the British auction houses Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams to markets in the Middle East has played a crucial role in building an international market for art from the region. They have also been essential in providing an international platform for the sale of art from Iran, a country whose economy is otherwise isolated from global markets. In this paper, I address the growth of the market for Iranian art specifically via Christie’s auctions in Dubai. Through close analysis of auction catalogs, ethnographic data drawn from live auctions and interviews with key staff members, I document the emergence of Iranian art into the international arena and the solidification of both Iranian and Middle Eastern art as a distinct category of sales. In particular, I explore the notion of “seeing with the other eye”, a way that auction specialists nudge local collectors into the arena of “international” taste. Through analysis of the particular tropes used to narrate artist biographies in auction catalogs, I demonstrate how artists are painted as interpreters and translators of “local” and “global” aesthetic registers.

中文翻译：

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拍卖的类别：佳士得迪拜的伊朗艺术，2006–2016年

英国拍卖行将克里斯蒂拍卖行，苏富比拍卖行和邦瀚斯拍卖行扩展到中东市场，在建立该地区艺术品国际市场方面发挥了至关重要的作用。在提供一个国际平台以出售伊朗艺术品的国际交易中，伊朗也至关重要。伊朗是一个经济与全球市场隔绝的国家。在本文中，我专门通过佳士得在迪拜的拍卖来探讨伊朗艺术品市场的增长。通过对拍卖目录的仔细分析，从现场拍卖中获得的人种学数据以及与主要工作人员的访谈，我记录了伊朗艺术在国际舞台上的崛起以及伊朗和中东艺术品作为一种独特的销售类别的巩固。我特别探讨了“另一只眼看”的概念，拍卖专家将本地收藏家推向“国际”品味的舞台。通过分析用于拍卖目录中艺术家传记叙事的特定比喻，我演示了艺术家是如何被绘画为“本地”和“全球”审美记录的翻译和翻译的。