Bloomberg‘s Henry Meyer homes in on Saudi art as the next wave in the Gulf States:

“There is a group of artists in Saudi Arabia, some of whom will probably do quite well in the future,” said William Lawrie, a Dubai-based expert on Middle Eastern art at Christie’s International. The London-based auction house in April 2009 for the first time offered for international auction a collection of Saudi art in Dubai. It sold six Saudi artworks for about $64,000.

At the Hewar Art Gallery on the 52nd floor of the glass Kingdom Tower skyscraper in Riyadh, general manager Mohammad Al Sa’awy was showing around a potential South Korean buyer.

“Saudi art is still the cheapest in the region,” he said, pointing at an oil painting by Abdullah Hammas, an artist born in 1952, on sale for $5,000. On the opposite wall, similar- quality works by contemporary artists from Lebanon and Syria were priced at $20,000.

Saudi Artists Set for Boom as King Supports Drive to Go Global (Bloomberg)