Sotheby's to auction two sculptures by Mahmoud Mukhtar

Auction house Sotheby's will be auctioning off two unseen sculptures by Egyptian pioneer Mahmoud Mukhtar.

The bidding will be held online from March 23-30 in an exhibition entitled "20th Century Art / Middle East". which will auction artworks by the most sought after Middle Eastern artists from the modern era to the contemporary period

The artworks have never been auctioned. It was bought directly from the artist, who passed away in 1934 at the age of 43, by illustrious collector Hafez Afifi Pasha, an influential politician and the first Egyptian delegate to the United Nations.

The sculptures have remained in the same family for decades, unseen by the public until now.

The first sculpture, titled “Ibn El-Balad”, which dates to 1910, (estimated at around $107,000- 131,000) was Mokhtar’s university graduation project, while the second, “Arous El-Nil,” from 1929 is a Pharaonic head of a woman, a marriage between Ancient Egyptian aesthetics and Art Deco (estimated at around $143,000-214,000).

It is worth mentioning that Mukhtar is considered a pioneer of modern Egyptian art. He is famous for his public sculpture masterpieces such as the granite Nahdet Masr (Egypt Awakening) in front of Giza Zoo and Saad Zaghloul next to Qasr El-Nil Bridge, which still towers over Cairo today.