“Art always gets a sort of double sense,” said Sholette. “One hand, yes, it’s a business, but it’s almost that’s the necessary side of propping up and maintaining and collecting and preserving culture, which somehow transcends capitalism, somehow transcending mere business.”
He said Art Basel’s tie-up with Qatar underscored just how much the supposed timeless quality of art had become entangled in modern finance and big business: “We actually really do see its connection to big business corporations, to the ultra wealthy, to oligarchs, Russian and otherwise. And so I think that contradiction has just kind of become very, very extreme and very, very apparent, and yet it goes on.”
Sholette said that the Basel organizers had to account for how hosting the fair would boost Qatar’s soft power. “It shouldn’t be done willy-nilly, to become part of, in this case, the Qatar political sphere, because that’s what’s going to basically assist Qatar and other countries in that region in their PR promotion.”
The Gulf State was already front and center at this year’s Swiss edition of Art Basel, with a dedicated pavilion in the exclusive collector’s lounge, and with official sponsor branding of its national carrier, Qatar Airways, all around the fair. During the event, Al Mayassa, the emir’s sister, gave a talk at the Beyeler Foundation, a contemporary art museum at the outskirts of Basel.
In an interview with POLITICO, Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz answered questions about Qatar’s human rights record, and the role that Art Basel might play in helping the country exert its influence internationally. “That’s not a concern of ours,” said Horowitz. “They’ve stepped forward in a very direct and meaningful way for some time now in the role of culture. I mean their cultural commitments are well noted and deep and quite visionary.”
Culture as currency
Art is big business. A report commissioned by UBS together with Art Basel found that in 2024, sales amounted to $57.5 billion. According to the Art Basel organizers, some 88,000 people attended the Swiss edition of the fair this year, including actor and filmmaker James Franco and footballer Michael Ballack. Artworks sell for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars. This year’s big ticket item was a work by British painter David Hockney, “Mid November Tunnel,” which sold for between $13-17 million, and which depicts a quiet, leaf-strewn country lane.