The Art Market Needs a Boost. It Thinks the Middle East Is the Answer.
Auction houses, dealers and advisers are betting on the Middle East to play an outsized role in the next art-market turnaround. Despite a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Iran and unstable pockets elsewhere in the region, the art world thinks it's time to capitalize on the Middle East as a major art destination.
Sotheby's conducted its first sale in Saudi Arabia a few months ago, after receiving an infusion of around $1 billion from Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund ADQ last year. Swiss art fair Art Basel is preparing to launch its next edition in Qatar, the tiny emirate that also recently landed a coveted spot to build a permanent national pavilion in the garden of the prestigious Venice Biennale. Private art-consulting firms are already cozying up to the region's sovereign families who have long championed and sometimes bankrolled various cultural festivals and institutions.
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