Art Basel has announced that it will open a new art fair in Qatar—ending months of speculation about potential collaborations between the Swiss fair behemoth and different sites in the Middle East.
“Since joining Art Basel in this role about two and a half years ago, we have set it as a goal to have a major lean-in—in some way, shape, or form—in the Middle East,” says Noah Horowitz, the chief executive of Art Basel. “We felt that it was important for the art business and for the Art Basel business in particular. So we spent quite some time familiarising ourselves with the region and in the end felt the Qataris were extraordinary partners to lean in with together.”
The fair will launch in February 2026 with around 50 international and regional galleries, and is produced in partnerships with Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) and QC+, which is a strategic enterprises wing of Qatar Museums. It will take place in the Msheireb district, the pedestrianised neighbourhood that also hosted the inaugural Design Doha earlier this year.
The plans for the fair go beyond the model of a series of booths selling art. With echoes of its Art Basel Cities enterprise, which likewise sought to blend culture and tourism, Horowitz says that Art Basel Qatar will take advantage of Qatar’s hotel and tourism offerings.
Its partnership with QSI also unlocks further potential scope. Horowitz points to the fact that QSI own the football club Paris St Germain—a site of potential collaboration during Art Basel Paris.
“Qatar are extremely adept, extremely entrepreneurial, very global business partners,” says Horowitz. “The fair, for us, felt like it could provide a really fresh and exciting recipe for future success, in addition to the work that we'll be doing with QC+ and the cultural teams. We look at how our audiences are developing and what our audiences are looking for. Sports entertainment and hospitality are really important touch points, and we’re really excited by what they can bring to the table as well.”
Questions have been posed regarding concerns over Qatar‘s human rights record. Qatar recently hosted the Fifa World Cup, which drew substantial infrastructural investment to the country as well as international criticism over human rights violations. The country’s male guardianship system also imposes several restrictions on women, such as access to reproductive healthcare. Horowitz says that “Art Basel Qatar will apply MCH Group’s high standards regarding ESG [Environmental, Social and Governance] across all its operations, including our strict code of conduct. As with all our fairs, we will work in partnership with galleries, artists and cultural institutions to provide a platform for vital exchange and conversation.”
Signs of new strategy
The idea of an expanded fair shows that Art Basel’s organisers are thinking differently about the landscape in the Gulf. The Gulf’s commercial centre remains Dubai, whose fair Art Dubai leads the region’s market. Abu Dhabi Art, which offers a higher price point, developed in tandem with the Saadiyat Museums Project, but it has yet to find its own collector base. Saudi Arabia, the Gulf newcomer on the art scene, does not yet have an international fair, though many expect one soon.
In terms of art investment, Qatar was the first among this trio to collect international contemporary art on a grand scale, a venture that has been driven forward by Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the sister of the present emir.
Starting in the 2000s Sheikha Al Mayassa commissioned major international artists, such as Richard Serra and Damien Hirst, for public art projects, and the Al Thanis began acquiring for and building museums.
Qatar Museums, the government entity which Sheikha Al Mayassa directs, now oversees Mathaf, the chief institution for modern art from the Arab region; the Fire Station, a contemporary art site; the National Museum of Qatar, designed by Jean Nouvel; and the Institute of Islamic Art, designed by I.M. Pei, among others.
Qatar is about to open a suite of new projects: the Art Mill, a campus comprising different art galleries and sites for workshops and residencies; the Lusail Museum, which will house Orientalist paintings; and the first new pavilion to be built at the Venice Biennale in 30 years.
Art Basel Qatar will no doubt sell to these existing and upcoming museums, and to the other institutions being built around the Gulf, but Horowitz underlines that their end goal is to help to develop a regional collecting base—something that has been stubbornly difficult in the Gulf, despite its vast wealth.
“We're all very aware of the extraordinary institutional developments and collections that are being built, and to further accelerate that,” says Horowitz.
“We also want to work hand-in-hand with our partners to build a local market, to onboard new patrons, to create further opportunities for artists and also for the art services broadly—galleries, curators, but also people working in operations, logistics, conservation, and so on. Her Excellency [Sheikha Al Mayassa] and her team at Qatar Museums have clearly made a mark in terms of their collecting and the institutions, and there are incredibly ambitious plan to continue that forward.”
