Is Dubai the art world’s “next Hong Kong?”

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William Lawrie at Christie’s is optimistic about the local market.

Dubai’s art scene is growing so fast that it is rapidly becoming the “next Hong Kong” for auctions, according to Christie’s Europe president, Jussi Pylkkanen.

One of Europe’s top art experts, he goes so far as to estimate that the emirate will develop into a US$250m market in less than the 20-year period it took Hong Kong to do the same. With Christie’s two auctions earlier this year exceeding all pre-sale estimates, generating US$21.23m and establishing 51 new records for the artists involved, Pylkkanen’s statement might just come true.

William Lawrie, Islamic art specialist at Christie’s, talks Arabian Business through how Christie’s found itself selling art in the emirate. “I have been looking seriously into the possibility of putting modern Arab art into auction since 2004,” he says.

When the auction-house decided to open a Dubai office in 2005, the plan was to use it as a “representative office” where clients who would participate in auctions in London, Paris or New York could meet. Christie’s presence was also designed to promote the company and increase its regional client-base by bringing travelling exhibitions of artwork, jewellery, and furniture to the emirate. Selling, however, at the time of the opening was not part of the equation. Indeed, auctioning was only planned three to four years later.

“Like many businesses that open up in the Middle East, you can only really begin to assess the potential once you’re here. When we had our first few exhibitions in 2005, the response we got from people was so much better than we could have anticipated that we thought why not have an auction here,” says Lawrie.

Dubai’s location made it the ideal choice for a regional office, according to Lawrie, especially with the company’s list of high-profile clients in Iran, India and the Arab World. Preparations for the auction began with putting together a catalogue of Indian, Iranian, Arab and Western artwork and setting up a pre-sale exhibition. Lawrie believes it is “only natural” to have this range of artworks as it reflects the multi-cultural community of Dubai and the buyers. While Christie’s has been selling Indian art for 10 years, sales have witnessed a huge leap in the last four.

“Our major sales site for Indian art is New York, but we also sell it in Hong Kong, however Dubai is so much closer to India than either of those places,” says Lawrie.

Christie’s first auction took place in May 2006 and was heralded as a “phenomenal success” in a number of reports with sales totaling over US$8.5m. This year, after three days of pre-sale exhibition, the Emirates Towers hosted Christie’s Modern and Contemporary Art auction on February 1 and reached US$9.4m. The auction included pioneers of modern Arab art, with some pieces dating back to the fifties and sixties, in addition to calligraphic, photography, and contemporary Iranian, Indian and Western art sections.

“When we did our first sale in May 2005 I thought we’d probably do another one in a year but it was such a success we decided to do it twice a year. After the February auction, the next one will be in November or December,” says Lawrie.

Christie’s sales in the emirate mostly comprise of modern contemporary art, whereas traditional Islamic art is more likely to be found on auction in London. Although Lawrie sees a lot of potential in local art galleries, he believes Christie’s has something else to offer.

“What we can do, which no gallery can, is bring together a much wider range and higher value collection because we bring together so many different collectors, artists and galleries; there’s a lot of diversity,” he claims.

Quite often, Lawrie explains, art from one country could be found in another like France, which is a great source of African Art or Jordan for Iraqi art. Sometimes, Iraqi art is even found in London, according to Lawrie. In a young auction market like Dubai, Lawrie is convinced it is essential that the artworks vary in price so that younger buyers are encouraged to start as art collectors. He believes that in five years’ time those same buyers could be the keenest collectors. Currently prices in the Arab and Iranian sections range from US$5000 up to about US$150,000. In the Indian section prices could reach up to US$500,000 but Lawrie explains this is because the Indian art market is significantly more established.

If all works were tagged with high prices, Lawrie says: “We’d be shooting ourselves in the foot because we don’t allow young collectors a chance. Who’s going to spend US$100,000 on their first piece of art? No one.”

In addition, price variety helps encourage younger artists to have their works auctioned — during last year’s auction, Christie’s sales exceeded 92%. “In a normal auction or if it was really successful 85% of the work would be sold. This time in the Arab section it was something like 96% sold,” he says.

Like prices, buyers vary too. Lawrie says the majority were private individuals and collectors, which is the market Christie’s is trying to target. Among the buyers are UAE nationals and residents, Arabs, Indians and a many Westerners from Europe.

“Interestingly, in last year’s auction there were a few Arab and Iranian artists who Indian buyers really liked and some of them were bidding fiercely for their work. There were also collectors of Arab art who were buying Indian paintings. We like to encourage cross category buying so if we can present an artist to someone that hasn't seen them before that’s great. That’s how the market and business grows,” says Lawrie.

Growth in the Indian art category has been phenomenal over the past few years, according to Lawrie. Ten years ago at a Christie’s London auction, in its first sale, Indian art reaped US$500,000. In September of 2006 at a New York auction it was a completely different story as Indian art sale made a record US$18.5m. This leap, Lawrie thinks, coincides with India’s growing economy and the emergence of a class of people who “have money, taste, and want to mainly buy Indian art”.

The large size of the Arab world creates huge underlying potential for Arab art, according to Lawrie. “The number of buyers is potentially more than India because there are more people with the means to buy and with the taste and education to do it,” he says.

In terms of art production in the Arab World, the leading countries at present are Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq, according to Lawrie. Then there’s Morocco and Tunisia that both have a large number of artists. In Gulf countries, although still behind the rest of the Arab states, Lawrie sees the number of artists growing.

Regionally, Iran stands at the top of the list with productivity exceeding any other country in the region.

“The places to look out for are the UAE - we have two works by top UAE artist Abdul Qader Al Rayess - and other places like Bahrain. We have few works by Gulf artists, but we are looking to increase that,” he says.

Lawrie is very enthusiastic about the regional art scene in general, and Dubai in particular. “It’s like building something new,” he says. “People have such a good feeling about developing this place in terms of its culture and business.”

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