Abu Dhabi’s The National covers Sotheby’s exhibition of work from next month’s sale in Qatar:

After opening their first Middle Eastern office in Doha, Qatar, last
year, Sotheby’s plans to hold its first international-scale auction at
the Ritz-Carlton Hotel-Doha, on March 18 and 19, coinciding with Art
Dubai and the Sharjah Biennale. On Monday, Sotheby’s brought a
selection of the works that will be on sale to the Emirates Palace to
lure new and returning buyers to the Doha auction. The future of the
art market, it seems, is right here in the Arabian Gulf. [ . . . ] Historically, the types of sales that Sotheby’s held throughout the
world were more about dipping into a local marketplace and working with
the local collectors. But in the past 20 years, the auction house has
refocused to better attract clients from a rapidly globalising world.“The
focus of where we place the auction is about a whole region rather than
an individual country or an individual city. It’s about choosing a
centre that works for a whole region,” says Howard-Sneyd. [ . . . ] With the auction that we are holding, Art Dubai, the Bastikiya Art Fair
and the Sharjah Biennale all focused on a single week, that is a
critical mass – the sort of series of events that will encourage an
American to get on a plane and fly 16 hours to the Gulf,” says
Howard-Sneyd. “That will bring some of the world’s great collectors
here.” [ . . . ] The Baroda Carpet is the highlight of the two-day Doha sale. It is a
masterpiece of beading from Gujarat, India, made of nearly two million
Basra pearls woven alongside glass beads, diamonds, emeralds and
rubies. The carpet and four others like it were commissioned by the
Maharaja of Baroda, Gaekwar Kande Rao, around 1865, reportedly as a
gift for the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed in Medina. However, the
carpet was never delivered to Medina and remained in the maharaja’s
family for 100 years. Sotheby’s representatives declined to comment on
the carpet’s current seller, citing privacy issues.

(More on the Contemporary art after the jump.)

Sotheby’s
could sell a piece like the Baroda Carpet in Paris, London, Hong Kong
or any of their offices around the globe. Instead, they chose to
include it in Doha’s inaugural sale, with an estimated initial bid of
US$5 million (Dh18m) – a very conservative starting price. “We
were impressed by the progressive approach that Doha has taken and of
course the Museum of Islamic Art is the icing on the cake,” says
Howard-Sneyd. “We felt that it was a very good place to serve the whole
region and I include in that India as well, as you know this carpet is
from India, so there’s an obvious link there.” [ . . . ] Unlike the Middle Eastern Contemporary art sales Sotheby’s has hosted
in London that are dedicated to the Arab world and Iran, the Doha sale
will feature 50 per cent western art and 50 per cent Middle Eastern and
Iranian art. “We are talking about top quality, museum quality works
alongside hot up-and-coming Middle Eastern artists, which is really
quite nice because we are trying to create a dialogue between the East
and West,” she says.

Weaving Markets (The National)