DUBAI, June 13 (Reuters) - Dubai has discovered there really
are some things money can't buy.
After a decade of petrodollar-driven success that has
established it rapidly as a regional financial, trade, tourism
and retail centre, the emirate has hit a speed bump in an
unexpected arena - art.
Burgeoning enthusiasm for collecting art convinced many that
Dubai was about to become an overnight sensation in the
international market, putting a gloss of sophistication on the
cultural life of the emirate.
But becoming a true global art centre, one that would
potentially alter the cultural fabric of the entire Middle East,
is a bit more complicated - and time-consuming.
"There are many wealthy people in Dubai and certainly there
is a rise in the disposable income, but that doesn't suddenly
make Dubai the hub of the regional art market," said Matthew
Girling, chief executive for UK and Europe at Bonhams, one of
the world's biggest fine art auction houses.
"There is a network of people around you in places like
London or New York - museums, galleries, dealers. This is what
helps you weather a downturn. All that is very much in its
infancy in Dubai," Girling said.
Such a wide and deep network can only emerge over time,
experts said, and no amount of wealth can rush the maturing
process.
Words like 'booming' and 'blossoming' were used to describe
Dubai's nascent contemporary art market five years ago as
auctions racked up one record-setting sale after the other.
But then the global financial crisis hit in 2008, and the
revenues of both Christie's and Bonhams took sharp dives,
eventually prompting Bonhams to halt auctions in the city.
"It was a false dawn, if you like to call it that," Girling
recalled.
Christie's, which continues to have a presence in Dubai,
held its 12th auction in April but revenues are nowhere near the
$20 million seen in 2008. The highest since then for a regular
auction was $7.9 million in April last year.
For Bonhams, shrinking revenues paved the way for an exit.
"I realised if we stayed in Dubai we'd be hit more than we
would in London," said Girling, who took the decision to shrink
operations to a liaison office last year. "We've got clients all
around the world and a lot of them travel. You don't necessarily
have to put the auction in Dubai to reach out to them."
YOUNGER, HIPPER
What is exciting to art experts is the steady growth in
numbers and influence of collectors from the Middle East, and
the increasing participation of younger buyers.
Figures show that Middle Eastern collectors are increasingly
becoming more influential players in the global art market, no
matter where they are based, however.
Middle Eastern clients accounted for 8 percent of Christie's
global auction turnover in 2011, the auction house said, up from
5 percent in 2010.
"Half the time I'm here and half the time I'm in London,"
one Middle Eastern art collector who takes part in Christie's
auctions told Reuters in Dubai.
"But I see more and more young people here, starting with
more affordable pieces, educating themselves and trying to be a
part of this thing," he said.
"I do find it exciting."
A Christie's auction in April in the ballroom of Jumeriah
Emirates Towers in downtown Dubai featured works by contemporary
Arab, Iranian and Turkish artists and attracted a young,
fashionable crowd, some of them emerging collectors.
Michael Jeha, Christie's Middle East director, who describes
the boom in 2007 and early 2008 as overheating and
unsustainable, said this new league of collectors was
instrumental to the foundation of a stronger market.
"Where we are today is you have a truly sustainable market
with a far deeper base of buyers and far more younger collectors
participating," he said. "Collectors want to buy art from their
own region as they relate to it."
The status of women in society, social and civil rights and
certainly the effects of the Arab Spring revolutions in several
countries in the Middle East are what stimulates this younger
art crowd. Some say they're looking for pieces that, as
collector Shaz Sheibani put it, "reflect the pains of the
society and are full of powerful statements".
"Iranian art for example is very topical," said Sheibani, a
Canadian national of Iranian origin who grew up in Dubai. "I
like those kinds of things that I can relate to and the messages
are more about the reflections on the society."
Sheibani, 34, who has been collecting art for the past four
to five years, talks about a generation of people who spent
their childhood in Dubai and then went abroad to study. Many
came back with a fresh and broad world vision and are determined
to be a part of the artistic transformation of the city.
"What happens when your walls are full?" asked Bashar
Al-Shrooqi, a private collector and the director of Dubai's
Cuadro Fine Art Gallery.
"Then you actually develop this passion and instead of going
to the movies you go to a gallery opening and at that point it
becomes not just collecting to fill your walls anymore ... This
is what we've been seeing here."
One positive indicator for the Dubai art scene is the
popularity of Art Dubai, which covers the Middle East, North
Africa and South Asia region. For its sixth edition this year,
featuring 75 galleries from 32 countries, visitor numbers have
nearly quadrupled from its first year in 2007 to more than
22,000.
Fair director Antonia Carver predicted a bright future for
Dubai's art market.
"The recognition of Arab and Iranian artists by the global
market has been absolutely phenomenal," she said.
"I don't think anyone in the art market here is hoping for a
big boom. They're hoping for a steady growth and I can say we're
in a much better position than before."
(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)