Dubai art scene witnesses gradual comeback

With Dubai's economic revival, the art scene in the sheikhdom fetches new spirit albeit the hype for buying expensive paintings and sculptures from pre-crisis years will not occur too soon, experts said. The politically stable and globally well-connected emirate of Dubai, regarded by many a peaceful bedrock in the ever instable Middle East, has benefitted from the turmoil in some Arab countries and so did the art scene in the sheikhdom. Michael Jeha, Managing Director and Head of Sales Middle East of renowned English auction house Christie's, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua that 2012 clearly marks a turnaround. "It has been a fantastic year so far for Christie's ..." Jeha said, adding "Middle Eastern buyers at Christie's auction accounted in 2011 for a new record share of 8 percent of our global turnover, and thanks to our regular auctions in Dubai, we are confident to top this figure in 2012." At Jeha's last auction on Oct. 23 in the ballroom of Dubai's iconic Emirates Towers hotel, Christie's sold contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish art for 3.64 million U.S. dollars. "New European and U.S. sanctions against Iran have not affected our sales of Iranian art, which enjoys huge popularity worldwide, but we keep a close eye on who offers what for our auctions," said Jeha. Despite the comeback mood, the ball room was far less full than during Dubai's hey-days in 2007 and 2008 -- the two last booming years before U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers went bust and dragged the world into an economic valley of tears. That is of no surprise if taken into account global trends on the allocation of capital among the "happy few." According to the Capgemini RBC Wealth Report 2012, the Middle East was in 2011 the only region where the combined wealth of the wealthy increased, albeit by a tiny 2.7 percent. The trend might continue, if forecasts done by Citigroup will materialize. Farouk Soussa, The U.S. bank's chief economist for the Middle East region, said Thursday in his monthly assessment that "Dubai's recovery from the global economic downturn goes from strength to strength. Over the past couple of years, economic data have pointed to robust growth in the core economy: transport, tourism, logistics and trade." For 2012, Soussa expects the Dubai real GDP to grow by 5.1 percent, for 2013 he expects 5.8 percent. As purchasing power returns, it translates in the Gulf Arab sheikhdom into a greater desire among high net worth individuals ( people with wealth above a million dollars) to diversify their capital by buying art. "Investors are clearly coming back, but it is gradual pick-up and not a mega-boom like before the global financial crisis," said Sossy Dikijian, Art Director of Art Space galleries in Dubai and London. Because young investors prefer not to spend too much for art, Christie's organized on Oct. 24 an auction day on accessories and watches "for smaller budgets," as Jeha explained. Jeha denied a report published on Oct. 23 by the Abu Dhabi daily The National that smuggled pieces of art landed in Christie' s depots and that they were hastily removed before the Dubai auction. "This article was based on a rumor and not on an input from Christie's. No items from Libya were considered for our auction," he said. Ms. Dikijian, whose Art Space gallery outlet is located just 50 meters near Christie's Middle East headquarters in the picturesque Gate Village of Dubai's banking free zone DIFC, confirmed Jeha's observation that Arab art is not only popular in the Middle East but globally. "The Arab turmoil has not dampened but raised interest in oriental paintings among European art lovers," said Dikijian. Prominent Egyptian artist Adel El Siwi, who currently exhibits his latest painting about African culture in the Art Space's Dubai gallery, said the turmoil has triggered a new wave of art expression in the Middle East as the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have questioned old models of painting and triggered new discussions about the Arab culture's future direction. However, El Siwi, who lived as an artist in Milan of Italy for 10 years before returning to Cairo in 1990, has not yet taken the turmoil as a theme for his paintings. "My mind still works on the events. This is a process of many years, until I can express my feelings of the events in Egypt," he said. "You see all these graffiti paintings on Cairo's house-walls which were created during the fall of the Mubarak regime in February 2011. They might find their ways into my art later, but professional art goes beyond spontaneity," said El Siwi. Gallerist Dikijian added that the entire Gulf region's art scene witnesses a comeback. On Nov. 7-9, Art Space will participate in the art week in Dubai's neighboring emirate of Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, new galleries are mushrooming in the Gulf and Swiss insurance giant Zurich Financial continued to sponsor Christie's auctions in Dubai in order to attract wealthy clients as customers as Zurich developed insurance products to financially protect art pieces against loss or damage. Swiss private bank Vontobel, which runs like Zurich Financial an office in the DIFC, also discovered the art scene as a way to lure new millionaire customers. Vontobel partnered up with Dikijian's Art Space at the beginning of the year. Christie's Jeha noted "that more and more rich Chinese tourists and businesspeople are among the bidders at our auction. Besides the Emirati currency Dirham, we expose items' prices also in U.S. dollars, Euros, Russian rubles and all other Gulf Arab currencies, but we seriously consider adding the Chinese Yuan to the price tags."