Shaikha Mai Al Khalifa to Asharq Al-Awsat: AlUla Has Become a ‘Global Cultural Destination’

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has signed a cooperation agreement with Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture and Research
The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has signed a cooperation agreement with Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture and Research
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Shaikha Mai Al Khalifa to Asharq Al-Awsat: AlUla Has Become a ‘Global Cultural Destination’

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has signed a cooperation agreement with Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture and Research
The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has signed a cooperation agreement with Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture and Research

Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa of Bahrain, founder of the Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture and Research and Chair of its Board of Trustees, affirmed that AlUla region in northwestern Saudi Arabia has become a “global cultural destination.”

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Shaikha Mai confirmed that “AlUla has become one of the most important destinations for cultural tourism, attracting visitors from around the world, thanks to its inclusion of registered sites on the World Heritage List and its representation as an open museum of human civilizations spanning thousands of years.”

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) had signed a cooperation agreement with Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture and Research.

The agreement looks to build cooperation in the fields of culture and heritage, as part of the efforts of the RCU to achieve the “AlUla Vision” and activate partnerships towards making AlUla a vibrant destination for heritage, culture, and the arts.

Moreover, the agreement will facilitate the establishment of a strategic partnership that supports the exchange of expertise, research, and capacity building in the fields of culture, heritage, and creativity.

It aims to preserve cultural and heritage assets, enhance historical sites, facilitate the exchange of knowledge and expertise, support studies and research, promote culture, science, intellectual pursuits, music, and literature, build capabilities, and host writers, thinkers, and artists.

“We, at the Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture and Research in Bahrain, are delighted to have an agreement for cultural cooperation and exchange of expertise with the RCU,” Shaikha Mai told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Shaikha Mai added that the Center, which is a non-profit private institution that celebrated its 21st anniversary in January, extends cooperation with official institutions at the core of its mission.



Magritte Painting Nets Auction Record of $121 Million

Rene Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" is on display during a press preview for Christie's Fall 20/21 Marquee Week in New York, November 8, 2024. (AFP)
Rene Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" is on display during a press preview for Christie's Fall 20/21 Marquee Week in New York, November 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Magritte Painting Nets Auction Record of $121 Million

Rene Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" is on display during a press preview for Christie's Fall 20/21 Marquee Week in New York, November 8, 2024. (AFP)
Rene Magritte's "L'empire des lumières" is on display during a press preview for Christie's Fall 20/21 Marquee Week in New York, November 8, 2024. (AFP)

A painting by Rene Magritte shattered an auction record for the surrealist artist on Tuesday, selling for more than $121 million at Christie's in New York.

The seminal 1954 painting had been valued at $95 million, and the previous record for a work by Magritte (1898-1967) was $79 million, set in 2022.

After a nearly 10-minute bidding war on Tuesday, "Empire of Light" ("L'Empire des lumieres") was sold for $121,160,000, "achieving a world-record price for the artist and for a surrealist work of art at auction", according to auction house Christie's.

The painting -- depicting a house at night, illuminated by a lamp post, while under a bright, blue sky -- is one of a series by the Belgian artist showing the interplay of shadow and light.

"Empire of Light" was part of the private collection of Mica Ertegun, an interior designer who fled communist Romania to settle in the United States where she became an influential figure in the arts world.

She died in late 2023 and was married to the late Ahmet Ertegun, the music magnate who founded the Atlantic Records label.

The sale of the Magritte painting was an expected highlight of this week's autumn sales season in New York, at a time when the art market has seen a slowdown since last year.

Christie's -- which is controlled by Artemis, the investment holding company owned by the Pinault family -- said sales totaled $2.1 billion in the first half of this year.

That is down for the second straight year, after a peak of $4.1 billion in 2022 as the world emerged from the coronavirus pandemic.

During the same Christie's auction on Tuesday, a celebrated 1964 painting of a gas station by 86-year-old Ed Ruscha, titled "Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half," sold for $68.26 million, setting a new auction record for the American pop artist.