The global art world is experiencing a dramatic transformation as emerging power centers across Asia, the Middle East, and post-Brexit Europe fundamentally reshape the industry's traditional hierarchy. The Middle East has become a particular focal point this week during Art Basel Paris, following a series of major announcements highlighting growth opportunities in the region amid broader challenges facing the art market.
Just before its flagship London fairs last week, Frieze announced it would relaunch the struggling Abu Dhabi Art fair as Frieze Abu Dhabi in November. This news came on the heels of Art Basel unveiling its list of 87 galleries participating in solo projects at the inaugural Art Basel Qatar fair in February, and London-based Old Masters gallery Colnaghi's announcement of a new Riyadh outpost backed by Saudi private equity firm Sarat Investments Holding.
This surge of Middle Eastern activity represents part of a broader global shift that has concentrated art world power as the market continues to expand internationally. Historical precedents exist for such realignments - Christie's chairman François Curiel recalls when the auction house didn't even maintain a sales room in New York. After Christie's opened in the city in 1977 and began competing with Parke-Bernet (Sotheby's former US operation), New York displaced Paris as one of the art market's premier centers alongside London.
Since the turn of the century, the art world has become increasingly globalized. This week finds art insiders in Paris, while last week they were in London. In early September, the art community was divided between South Korea for Frieze Seoul, New York for the Armory Show, and São Paulo for the São Paulo Biennial opening. However, some industry segments have globalized more extensively than others.
Today's sought-after artists emerge from virtually everywhere: Mexico, India, Beijing, Brazil, Los Angeles, Leipzig, and Ghana. Influential galleries have similarly sprouted across global cities. Yet mega-auctions remain highly concentrated in New York, London, and Hong Kong, while dominant art fair brands Art Basel and Frieze maintain their European headquarters. Nevertheless, powerful new art hubs have established themselves as Asia's economic might, post-Brexit Paris's rise, and Gulf soft power initiatives have undermined New York and London's longstanding dominance.
Asia's first major power surge began around 2005 when Chinese collectors became hyperactive, initially collecting local artists and driving prices astronomically high before expanding to Western artists. A wave of private museums followed, some with significant intellectual influence. "In China you had not only people collecting conventional work but also people who were among the most ambitious globally in terms of buying more conceptual artists like Matthew Barney," notes top art advisor Allan Schwartzman.
When Christie's posted Curiel to Hong Kong in 2010 to lead Asian efforts, the continent represented only 3 percent of the auction house's global business. Now it accounts for ten times that amount. While a stagnant Chinese economy has since dampened activity, other Asian hubs are compensating. A 2018 South Korean tax law change exempting VAT on art purchases under 60 million Korean won (approximately $42,000) significantly impacted the market, spurring a private museum boom that continues developing. Southeast Asian collectors are becoming increasingly dynamic, and even Japan, long dormant in the art world, is showing signs of new collector interest.
As Asia's market matured, Europe's art sector faced political upheaval, specifically Britain's shocking European Union exit, which weakened London's art hub status to Paris's benefit. Mega-galleries Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, and White Cube have since opened new Parisian spaces. Christie's Paris sales have roughly doubled since Brexit, with Curiel noting that "overall we see more business being done in Europe because Brexit imposed so much more paperwork."
Brexit represents only half the story behind Paris's ascendance. Over the past decade, private sector additions to Paris's deep roster of public institutions have included Bernard Arnault's Fondation Louis Vuitton, François Pinault's Bourse de Commerce, Galeries Lafayette's Lafayette Anticipations, and the new Jean Nouvel building for Fondation Cartier, which opened Monday. This healthy mix of public and private institutions, alongside Brexit, made Paris appealing for Art Basel's expansion, with growing art-luxury fashion ties promising meaningful brand partnerships.
Unlike Paris and key Asian regions where private sector activity has been critical, the Middle East's rise has been overwhelmingly driven by Gulf ruling families, government initiatives, and massive sovereign wealth funds supporting these strategies. Each kingdom has approached the game differently while aiming to soften and project their national brands. The Saudis have brought in renowned cultural players including James Turrell, Swizz Beatz, and the Desert X Biennial in AlUla, alongside TeamLab in Jeddah.
Abu Dhabi has played a similar brand-buying game but with heavier infrastructure investments, building museums such as the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi by Frank Gehry and the Louvre Abu Dhabi by Jean Nouvel. The Qatar Museum Authority has also constructed major museums, including the spectacular Museum of Islamic Art by I.M. Pei and Nouvel's National Museum of Qatar, though until recently it hadn't brought in Western cultural brands despite frequently sponsoring Western cultural projects.
The concentrated power of royal families enables rapid major initiative launches but also carries risks. "What's complicated is that there's no real distinction between the families and the government, so the whole cultural ambition of the country depends upon a few people and their interest in art," explains Georgina Adam, author of "Dark Side of the Boom" and "Big Bucks," which examined the art world's expansion. "Beyond that you don't have a real foundation of private collectors."
While Dubai lacks its neighbors' deep pockets, it serves as the region's most international hub and remains the Middle East's art market center. Alserkal Avenue alone hosts several internationally active Dubai galleries plus Middle Eastern satellites of European galleries like Perrotin and Waddington Custot. In neighboring Sharjah, Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi has established the Sharjah biennial and herself as thought leaders.
If today's art world remains Western-anchored, much market momentum now lies east of Istanbul. "A lot of the people who are patrons there went to school in the UK or America, so they're at home in the art world," Schwartzman observes. "And when they get energized by contemporary art they become evangelists. At the moment, we don't have a lot of those type of people in the US." This dynamism extends beyond regional borders - last week during Frieze, the two most discussed new London institutions in Fitzrovia were international ventures: the Ibraaz Foundation, funded by Tunisian-Swiss financier Kamel Lazaar, and Yan Du Projects, funded by China-born Yan Du and focused on spotlighting Asian and Asian diasporic art.
Looking ahead, industry observers are eyeing India, which has the world's third-highest number of billionaires according to Forbes analysis, not including significant Indian Silicon Valley players. "You can build a market with millionaires," Schwartzman notes. "But a single billionaire can put a whole country on the art world map with a major new museum or arts center." As these shifting power dynamics continue reshaping the global art landscape, traditional centers must adapt to an increasingly multipolar cultural world.
