Christie's has announced the headline figures for its anniversary sale of Middle Eastern art. "MAWASIM: 20 Years of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art" will be held in Abu Dhabi on 1 November, offering seventy works with a combined low estimate of $6.53 million and a high estimate of $9.68 million, excluding buyer's premium. The sale marks two decades of the auction house's dedicated sales in the category. The top lot is Fahrelnissa Zeid's Composition, painted in 1948 and estimated at $500,000 to $700,000. Zeid, the Turkish-born artist whose large-scale abstractions made her a central figure of mid-century modernism with deep ties to the region, is represented here by a work that has appeared at auction three times before — a reminder of how rarely her major paintings change hands. The estimate positions the painting as the sale's clear anchor. According to the house, none of the seventy lots carry guarantees, which means the 1 November results will offer a genuine read on demand rather than a pre-arranged outcome. The pre-sale totals, converted into US dollars, cover the full seventy-lot offering with no undisclosed estimates. Staging the anniversary edition in Abu Dhabi rather than London underlines the emirate's continuing effort to position itself as a commercial hub for the region's art market. With the autumn season underway, the MAWASIM results will be closely watched as a barometer for modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art heading into the winter sales, and the house will publish full results after the hammer falls.