Paul Gauguin’s Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When will you Marry?) seems to have had its massive $300 million price tag confirmed by the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, which has currently taken the work on loan for a new exhibition.  “Nafea Faa Ipoipo was recently purchased by the Qatar Museums Authority from the Swiss collection of Rudolf Staechelin for more than $300m,” reads text released by the museum, further supporting its new place as the world’s most expensive piece of art. (more…)

The New York Post quotes an unnamed source disclosing that the mystery buyer of the record setting, $179 Million Pablo Picasso several weeks ago in New York is former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.  “The painting almost certainly will not go on public display in Qatar because of the nudity, even though it is a cubist work,” the source says. (more…)

A Paul Gauguin painting from 1892 has reportedly been sold for close to $300 million, setting a new record for the most expensive work of art.  Rudolf Staechelin, a retired Sotheby’s executive, confirmed the sale with the New York Times, but the Qatari buyer’s identity has not been disclosed, nor has the official price.  “The real question is why only now?” Mr. Staechelin said of the Gauguin sale. “It’s mainly because we got a good offer. The market is very high and who knows what it will be in 10 years.” (more…)

Longtime auction market veteran Edward Dolman is returning from a three year stint at the Qatar Museums Authority to head Phillips, the perennial third-place auction house, and to challenge the long-running dominance of Sotheby’s and Christie’s.  “It’s certainly been tried before,” he said in a telephone interview with the New York Times. “I’ve always thought it would be good for everyone to offer clients more options, especially with the significant growth in the number of collectors there are now from all over the world.”    (more…)

The New York Times has profiled Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the head of the Qatar Museums Authority in its year-end look at the art world, calling the young sheikha a “power player” on the global stage.  “It’s most important to allow young artists today to see what’s happening,” she says. “Seventy percent of our population is under the age of 30.” (more…)

The Qatar Museums Authority has announced that Sheikha Amna bint Abdulaziz bin Jassim Al-Thani will take the position of Director for the National Museum of Qatar.  While an opening date for the new museum has yet to be announced, the museum’s construction is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2014. (more…)

Intense protest over the installation of Adel Abdemessed’s Zinedine Zidane sculpture in Doha, Qatar, has resulted in the removal of the piece from public exhibition, due to its “anti-Islam idolization.”  The piece, titled Coup de Tete, was installed at the beginning of October, caused such a public outcry among conservative citizens and politicians that it was removed less than a month later. (more…)

The 2013 edition of Art Review’s annual Power 100 is out, documenting the most powerful players in the art world today, with Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, the head of Qatar’s powerful Museum Authority, taking the number one position.  Al Thani has rocketed up the list in past years, especially after paying a reported $250 million for one of Cézanne’s The Card Players in 2012, and after considering her government’s rumored $1 billion budget for acquisitions.  The top spots on the list are rounded off by David Zwirner at #2, Iwan Wirth at #3, Larry Gagosian at #4, and Serpentine  co-directors Hans Ulrich Obrist and Julia Peyton-Jones sharing the #5 spot.   (more…)

Damien Hirst’s newest sculptures, depicting the stages of life for a gestating fetus, have been unveiled in Qatar.  Monumental in scale, the 14 bronze statues are estimated to have cost $20 million, and signal a new step towards acceptance of western art and artists in the country.  “To have something like this is less daring than having a lot of nudity,” said Sheikha al Mayassa Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani of the Qatar Museum Authority . “There is a verse in the Koran about the miracle of birth,” she said. “It is not against our culture or our religion.” (more…)

Details are emerging about a major exhibition of work by Damien Hirst, billed as the largest exhibition of work by the artist yet to be assembled, slated to open later this year in Doha, Qatar.  The show, titled Relics, will cull work from the full range of the artist’s work, and will include a number of the artist’s diamond-encrusted work. (more…)

Last night’s Sotheby’s contemporary art auction in Doha, Qatar closed with the regional record sales total of $15.2 Million, with 9 records set for artists at auction, including the highest price for a living Arabic artist. The top sale of the auction went to Donald Judd’s Untitled (Bernstein 90-01), which sold for $3,525,000 after a long bidding competition.  Lina Lazaar Jameel, Head of Sale and Sotheby’s International Contemporary Art Specialist, said of the auction: “We are thrilled with the results of this evening’s sale, which achieved records for nine artists and set the highest total for a sale of Contemporary Art in the Middle East region. It is extraordinarily gratifying to see the market’s response to the exceptional range of art we sourced for this evening’s carefully curated auction. Interest grew throughout the pre-sale tour of highlights to both Jeddah and Dubai, culminating in tonight’s exciting auction.”  (more…)

The new airport currently under construction in Doha, Qatar is commissioning major art pieces by some of the world’s most prominent artists, says an undisclosed source.  While contractors, staff and dealers are bound by a non-disclosure agreement, a Qatar Museums Authority official confirmed 14 new commission projects from highly recognized international artists recently on a local blog. (more…)

‪‬ Qatar continues to build its international art collection, with Qatari purchases accounting for an estimated 25% of the Middle East’s $11 billion art market. [AO Newslink]

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Paul Cézanne, Card Players, Qatar, via Vanity Fair

The royal family of Qatar has just publicized its $250-$300 million purchase of Card Players by Paul Cézanne. The work is one in a series of five, but until now was the only one remaining in private collection. Previous owner, Greek shipping mogul George Embiricos, became receptive to the sale just prior to his death in 2011. Vanity Fair reports that William Acquavella and Larry Gagosian were outbid for Card Players, at comparable amounts rumored up to $220 million.  Even the low estimate of $250 million, factoring in exchange rate and tax fees, marks the highest sum in history ever paid for a single work of art in either auction or private sale by double.

Paul Cézanne, Card Players, Metropolitan Museum of Art, via New York Times

As the title indicates, the series depicts two low-brow card players in Aix-en-Provence. The peasants idealize an old world culture, nostalgic even to the middle-aged artist when he painted from his family’s country estate in the 1890s. At the time, Cézanne was working alone, and his isolation reflects in the sparing surfaces and minimal compositions of the varying card scenes. Only the subtlest of changes differentiate one painting from the next: most notably, the cards themselves change as the games progress, while the faces and suggestively sluggish interactions do not.

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