Moroccan artist Mohamed Melehi hits new auction record at Marrakech sale

A print by Mohamed Melehi, a Moroccan modernist associated with the Casablanca school, sold Saturday for more than $112,000, setting a record for a lithograph by the artist.

The print, Allah (1972), bears the word “Allah” in black Arabic calligraphy against a field of radiating color bands.

It was included in Artcurial’s 63-lot “Moroccan and African Spirit” auction at La Mamounia in Marrakech and sold for 1,272% above its high estimate. It had been estimated to fetch between $6,600 and $8,800.

“Mohamed Melehi is one of the great founders of Moroccan artistic modernity,” the auction’s catalog reads.

Meanwhile, the painting Vague, made by Melehi around 1968, had been estimated to fetch between $120,000 and $180,000 and sold for more than $191,000. That artwork shows a geometric abstract composition dominated by vivid, rhythmic wave forms in shades of blue, orange, and red—evoking light reflections or desert heatwaves.

A third artwork by Melehi, the painting Sans titre (1970), sold for more than $172,000, under its estimate of about $180,000.

In total, the auction brought in more than $2.2 million, with the top lot selling for just under $200,000. That work was a painting by Jacques Majorelle titled Marché sur la place du village, Côte d’Ivoire from 1952.