The New York Times sweeps together several facts about Qatari art purchases into a not-very-informative article. The story does contain this jumble of information that may be garbled by the reporter but remains intriguing:
Qatari buyers make up to 25 percent of the Middle East’s $11 billion art market, according to calculations by Philip Hoffman, chief executive of the Fine Art Fund Group, an art investment management and consulting firm based in London. His team manages an art fund for clients with a minimum of $3 million in investable assets that became available to Mideast clients last year through a partnership with Emirates NBD, a bank based in Dubai. The fund taps the Middle East art market, which Mr. Hoffman believes is set to triple in the next five years and gain an even bigger foothold in the $3 trillion international art market. […] “More of the world’s best paintings will be heading to Qatar in the next three years,” said Mr. Hoffman, the Fine Art Fund Group chief. He added that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also had great potential to be influential art market players.
If the $3T figure is meaningful, it may be Hoffman’s estimate of the total value of art as an asset. But even that doesn’t seem entirely right.
An Emirate Filling Up With Artwork (New York Times)
