Egyptian Market Heats Up

Kelly Crow has an article in the Wall Street Journal on how Egyptian entrepreneurs are starting to invest heavily in art in general and Egyptian art in particular.  Crow notes there has been growth in Galleries in Cairo and Alexandria.  As wealth flows into many countries, current and previous examples are Russia and now China, there becomes a renewed interest in indigenous cultural property, and a desire to invest and repatriate.

The article also has a nice slide presentation with some very good examples of Egyptian art.

Crow reports

Collectors credit the steady growth of modern-art galleries in Cairo and Alexandria with reviving local interest in the tumultuous 20th-century era, when Egyptian artists began painting life as they saw it, from slums to Sufi dancers. The working-class figures of Abdul Hadi El-Gazzar and Hamed Nada's scenes of musicians also make up some of the nation's top modern work.

he museum-building boom in the Gulf has elevated the global profile of Arab artists across the region, including Egypt. Qatar's Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art is scheduled to open Dec. 30.

Dubai-based collector Farbod Dowlatshahi says prices for Arab modern art didn't skyrocket before the recession, so values didn't plummet like they did for some Iranian art stars like Farhad Moshiri. As a result, Egyptian buyers entering the market now aren't as skittish to bid big, even as other collectors remain cautious.

Saudi real-estate developer Mohammed Said Farsi was the seller of that $2.4 million Said at Christie's this spring, and he has consigned another 60 Egyptian paintings to Christie's sales of modern and contemporary art Oct. 26 in Dubai and Nov. 7 in Paris.

To read the full article, click HERE.