Jeff Koons surprises students at Abu Dhabi Art show

The artist, whose sculpture Hanging Heart broke Sotheby's records in 2007 when it sold for US$23.6 million, described the event as "bigger and better than ever".

The American artist Jeff Koons poses in front of one of his painting displayed at the Abu Dhabi Art fair at Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi.

ABU DHABI // For a group of young Emirati art students it was a dream come true.

As they walked through the Abu Dhabi Art exhibition at the Emirates Palace on Thursday, they spotted one of their heroes, the American artist Jeff Koons, and quickly surrounded him asking for autographs.

Koons, whose painting Geisha is on display at the Gagosian Gallery stand, obliged with good humour and even made a drawing in the sketchbook of one of the thrilled students, signing it with a flourish.

The artist, whose sculpture Hanging Heart broke all records at Sotheby's in 2007 when it sold for US$23.6 million (Dh86.7m), described the show this year as "bigger and better than ever".

"I've noticed this year that there are more and more younger Middle Eastern artists here, more galleries that are displaying work.

"Looking at the work I can see the harmonies, the similarities between the way I look at work normally and the way I'm able to view the work from the Middle Eastern area. It just seems as normal as any work I would see in New York."

Koons's patience and kindness to the students might have been influenced by a seminal experience he had when he was a star-struck teenager meeting the great surrealist painter Salvador Dali in New York.

"My mother informed me that he stayed at the St Regis hotel in the wintertime, so I called him up and they put me through to his room and I told him that I was a young artist from Pennsylvania and I loved his work and wanted to know if I could come and meet him. And he told me 'sure' that I should meet him in the lobby at noontime on a Saturday. And I went there and sure enough right at noon he was there.

"He had a wonderful fur coat on and a beautiful elaborate silk tie with diamond pins and a silver cane and he had his moustache impeccably up at the ends. I was young and nervous and scuffling around for my camera and he pulled his moustache up and told me, 'Come on, I can't hold this pose all day'."

It was an unforgettable experience for the young Koons - and for the young women from Zayed University on Thursday.

Abu Dhabi Art ends tomorrow and is open to the public for free.