Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Holds Talks with British, Iranian Officials

Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Rakan Al-Touq meets with UK's Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Stephen Parkinson in Riyadh. (SPA)
Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Rakan Al-Touq meets with UK's Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Stephen Parkinson in Riyadh. (SPA)
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Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Holds Talks with British, Iranian Officials

Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Rakan Al-Touq meets with UK's Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Stephen Parkinson in Riyadh. (SPA)
Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Rakan Al-Touq meets with UK's Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Stephen Parkinson in Riyadh. (SPA)

Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Rakan Al-Touq held talks in Riyadh on Wednesday with the UK's Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Stephen Parkinson.

They met on the sidelines of the 45th Extended Session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, which is taking place in the Saudi capital from September 10 to 25.

Al-Touq welcomed the British official to Saudi Arabia and extended his gratitude to the UK for announcing support for the Kingdom’s nomination to the UNESCO Executive Board for the term 2023-2027 term.

The officials discussed the existing cooperation and stressed the importance of developing bilateral relations within the framework of the memorandum of understanding for cultural cooperation that was signed in February 2022.

They also looked forward to cooperating in developing various projects in the heritage and museum fields.

Al-Touq also met with Iranian Vice Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Dr. Ali Darabi, who was also attending the UNESCO event.

The officials discussed ways to boost cultural cooperation in various fields.



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.