Tehran, May 28, The Iran Project - The fifth Iranian annual art auction has been held last night at Tehran's Parsian Azadi Hotel with celebrities, collectors and businessmen in attendance.

The 5th round of the event  was hosted by Iranian artist Hossein Pakdel in Tehran on Friday.

Eighty paintings, sculptures, and photos were offered during the fifth edition of auction house. The items for sale at the Tehran art show offering abstracts, Farsi calligraphy and pastoral images in the thick-paint impasto style. Portraits and sculptures were also on the block, along with paintings of ancient scenes of the Persian empire or the mosques of Isfahan, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The annual Tehran art auction hit record sales of $7.4 million Friday.

Total sales were 12 percent higher than the previous year, though this year’s auction saw only 79 items sold, as opposed to 126 then.

Works by  Iranian renowned poet Sohrab Sepehri sold for $873,000. Last year, three of his untitled paintings sold for $875,000. Works by the internationally known sculptor Parviz Tanavoli had a starting price of about $100,000, as well.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430"] Iranian auction workers hold a painting of famed late Iranian artist Sohrab Sepehri in Tehran Art Auction at the Azadi Hotel in Tehran, Iran, Friday, May 27, 2016.[/caption]

The first auction was held in June 2012 when the auction house was established by Alireza Sami-Azar in order to promote the economy of art in the country.

Iran's Culture Minister Ali Jannati briefly and his deputy for Artistic Affairs Ali Moradkhani briefly appeared at the auction Friday.

Meanwhile, foreign customers were able to bid through local connections paying of their behalf. That’s despite Iran’s banking system still not being fully connected to the international market due to technical problems.

The identity of buyers is traditionally not revealed, but actress Elnaz Shakerdoust was among buyers, who bought a work from Naser Oveisi.