Dubai charity art auction raises Dhs36.6m for Sheikh Mohammed’s 100 Million Meals campaign

A ‘100 Million Meals’ live charity art auction held in Dubai on Saturday raised Dhs36,673,000, which in turn will help provide an equal number of meals to beneficiaries in 30 countries during the month of Ramadan.

On display at the auction organised by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, in collaboration with Maupy Auction, was a piece of Kaaba cover from the personal collection of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Read: Sheikh Mohammed launches initiative to provide 100 million meals across 20 countries

At the auction, rare works by several of the art world’s greatest contemporary masters including Pablo Picasso (Florian Picasso, the great grandson of Pablo Picasso was present at the auction), Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Henry Moore and David Hockney were made available.

Present at the event was Sacha Jafri, who recently auctioned The Journey of Humanity that holds the Guinness World Record for the largest art canvas, for $62m. At the auction on Saturday, he presented a unique collaborative work commissioned by the ‘100 Million Meals’ campaign. The joint artwork served as an additional layer on top of one of Jafri’s iconic Canvas-Panels that was created in the lead-up to his record breaking The Journey of Humanity. The painting, dubbed The Road to the Journey of Humanity featured the signature of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, chairperson of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), and also the handprint and signature of Florian Picasso.

Jafri’s donation to the auction also included a large-scale oil on canvas work titled A New Hope – A Child’s Prayer, depicting a little girl’s prayer, and celebrating the UAE’s 50th anniversary and its journey to space. It also features handprints and signatures of celebrities including Eva Longoria, Conor McGregor, Boris Becker, Huda Kattan, Shilpa Shetty, Steve Harvey, Jaqueline Fernandez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer.

Jafri also donated to the auction the clothes he wore while creating The Journey of Humanity.

See: Video: How Sacha Jafri created the $62m world’s largest canvas painting in Dubai

The other pieces auctioned included Nelson Mandela’s Swallow black and white by the late South African president, which came directly from his family, along with The original Swallow line drawing, which were both auctioned during the event.

Henri Matisse’s Fleurs dans un vase drawing was auctioned, while Pablo Picasso’s gold medallions, commissioned to the prominent goldsmith Francois Hugo made after the original designs were sketched by Picasso himself, were auctioned too.

Salvador Dali’s original pencil on irregular verge gris paper, Etude de visages: Madonna, enfant et profile d’homme (Study of faces: Madonna, Child and Profile of a Man) was also auctioned, as was two of David Hockney’s pieces – In Front of House Looking West, signed and stamped by the artist in pencil, and Matelot Kevin Druez 2, which depicts a sailor smoking a cigarette while gazing into the observer.

Two pieces from Spanish painted Joan Miró collectively generated Dhs771,000. The first – Untitled – was auctioned for Dhs220,000 to Umar Kamani, co-founder of Pretty Little Thing, while the second artwork – ‘Personages, Oiseau’ – was a piece that was painted on plywood.

The last item on the bidding list was Henry Moore’s bronze sculpture with a dark brown and green patina, titled Mother Holding Child.