İbrahim Çallı painting sold for 500,000 liras at auction

İSTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

A famous mythological painting by Turkish artist İbrahim Çallı, “Kayalıklarda Yıkanan Çıplaklar” (Nudes bathing on a bluff), has been sold at auction for 500,000 Turkish Liras, after being found unattended in a house for many years.

The lot opened at 400,000 liras, in an auction held by Other Side Auction at the International Art Center (IAC) in the Bağlarbaşı district. Çallı’s three-meter-long creation was the highlight, but the auction also featured the work of many other contemporary Turkish artists, with approximately 330 works of art available.

Çallı created the piece while staying on Kaşık Island, where the founder of the Turkish Repubic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, had given him a residence. The painting was made for his doctor, Mehmet Medeni Akman, and stayed in Akman’s home for many years before it was given to experts for restoration.

İbrahim Safi, Nazmi Ziya, Sabri Berkel, Avni Arbaş, Nuri Abaç, Fikret Mualla, Adnan Çoker, Abidin Dino and Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu were among the other artists whose collections were featured at the auction.

A new trend

Other Side Auction hopes to start a new trend in the Istanbul art scene by bringing new auction events, which usually take place on the European side of the city, to the Anatolian side.

IAC Istanbul founder Hafize Uncuoğlu said she was both happy and sad to sell the painting.