Oriental bull market

Prices for paintings of Middle Eastern subjects, especially those of the so-called Orientalist school, have soared since the 1973 oil boom, escalating from a mere $3,000 to $500,000 for top-quality works. Today, the record price for an Orientalist work is held by Christie’s for the Ludwig Deutsch’s1892 painting The Palace Guard, which they sold for a staggering $3,192,500 in 1999. Wendy Goldsmith, former head of the 19th Century European Art Department at Christie’s and now an art advisor, noted: “The demand for Orientalist pictures is going from strength to strength but only, however, for a certain segment of the market. More and more new clients from both the Middle East and America are looking for top works by the major artists such as Jean-Léon Gérome, Ludwig Deutsch and John Frederick Lewis, and this is driving prices ever higher. They are very particular in their tastes, and don’t want to “settle”