Sotheby's Auction House sells Adam Hanin's masterpiece for £50,400

CAIRO – 14 April 2021: Sotheby's International Auction House in London, sold a statue entitled “The Man and the Fish”, by the late artist Adam Hanin, in an auction titled "20th Century Art / Middle East".

Hanin's statue "The Man & The Fish"

The price of the statue was estimated between £45,000 and £55,000. It was sold for £50,400. The statue is made of bronze.

Hanin worked from 1989 to 1998 with the Ministry of Culture in the restoration of the Sphinx in Giza. In 1996, he founded the Aswan International Sculpture Symposium, which is an annual workshop and exhibition that invites sculptors from around the world. 

Hanin is one of the most prominent contemporary sculptors in the Arab world. During his career, he produced a large number of large and small pieces, using various materials such as granite, bronze, plaster, limestone and pottery. His first works embodied the agility and durability of ancient Egyptian statues. 
 

Hanin was born in Cairo in 1929 to a family that comes from Assiut governorate and works in making jewelry. He grew up in Bab al-Sha'ariya neighborhood. At the age of 20, he decided to become a sculptor and went to the School of Fine Arts in Cairo to graduate from it in 1953. 
 

He studied Fine Arts in Luxor from 1954 to 1955. He then studied sculpture in West Germany in 1957. He worked as a painter in Sabah al-Kheir magazine in 1961, and then as a technical consultant at El-Tahrir Publishing House in 1971. 
 

Hanin’s work is characterized by the emphasis on the local environment, the ancient Egyptian heritage and his ability to express social reality.