The Wall Street Journal identifies the new trend in Middle Eastern art — Egyptian Modernism — and ascribes its ascent to a new breed of wealthy Middle Eastern collector.

Egyptian entrepreneurs, flush with profits in everything from cellphones to cars, are playing a powerful new role in Middle Eastern art-collecting. […] Collectors credit the steady growth of modern-art galleries in Cairo and Alexandria with reviving local interest in the tumultuous 20th-century era, when Egyptian artists began painting life as they saw it, from slums to Sufi dancers. The working-class figures of Abdul Hadi El-Gazzar and Hamed Nada’s scenes of musicians also make up some of the nation’s top modern work.

It would be nice to know who some of these Egyptian collectors are. Or is the Journal simply inferring — and that’s most likely correct — that the market for Egyptian modern works is being driven by Egyptian collectors?

Sands Shift in Mideast Collecting (Wall Street Journal)