London ( CNN ) -- The salerooms of London were last week crammed with art and antiquities from across the Islamic world , as the city 's auction houses celebrated `` Islamic Week . '' A growing interest in work from the region saw records fall for centuries-old pieces and contemporary creations alike . Auction houses Christie 's , Sotheby 's , Bonhams and Baldwin 's all held sales of Islamic artifacts , from ancient carvings to calligraphy , coins and carpets . The biggest record was set at Sotheby 's Orientalist Sale , where Russian painter Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky 's `` View of Constantinople and the Bosphorus '' sold for $ 5,215,556 last week -- far in excess of its pre-sale estimate of $ 1,943 , 530 . The work , completed in 1856 by Aivazovsky , who was official painter to the Russian admiralty , sparked a bidding war : a spokesman for the auctioneer said at least five would-be buyers had battled it out to own the piece . Last year , Sotheby 's set a new record for the sale of an Islamic artwork when an illustrated folio from the Shahnameh -- an epic Persian poem composed around 1,000 years ago -- sold for $ 12.2 million . Claude Piening , head of Sotheby 's Orientalist department , said his field -- works depicting Turkey and the Arab World -- `` has enjoyed robust growth over the past 10 years ... because of new interest from North Africa and the Middle East . '' That time period has seen a `` perfect storm '' of art collectors in the Middle East , according to Antonia Carver , director of Dubai-based art fair Art Dubai . Leading the way have been Gulf states like Abu Dhabi and Qatar and cities such as Beirut and Cairo , she says . Sotheby 's also saw a record price for a work by modern Turkish artist Nejad Melih Devrim , whose 1952 `` Abstract Composition '' went under the hammer for $ 1,191,017 -- almost three times its pre-sale estimate . See Also : Modern art boom in Turkey . At Christie 's , the proceeds of one of several Islamic and Indian themed sales will go to Oxford University 's Bodleian Library , to fund the creation of a research post in Sasanian ( early Iranian ) studies . Highlights of the `` works on paper '' auction , all of which came from a single private collection , included sought-after items of calligraphy , such as a `` Mufradat '' manuscript -- a work of exquisite calligraphy -- and several rare Qurans , as well as Indian miniatures and portraits . The sale raised more than $ 2.4 million . Baldwin 's sale included coins minted in Mecca , a rare glass weight for measuring silver , and the `` Magnus Princeps '' bronze portrait medal of Ottoman sultan Sultan Mehmed II , who conquered Constantinople in 1453 . `` Mehmed II overthrew the Byzantine empire , '' explained coin specialist Graham Byfield . `` There are only two or three contemporary portraits of him in the world -- this is the earliest of them , and it is thought to be unique . ''
London 's auction houses hosted a series of sales dedicated to art of the Islamic world . Painting , ceramics , sculpture , carpets and coins went under the hammer . Experts ' market for art of Arab origin has grown substantially over past years .