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Gulf State Hungry to Buy More Luxury Assets

by

Robb Young

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This is the featured image caption
Credit: This is the featured image credit

If Qatar’s ruler gets his way, the next bid at Christie’s won’t be just for artwork but for the auction house itself

Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.

PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.

In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”

The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris

If Qatar’s ruler gets his way, the next bid at Christie’s won’t be just for artwork but for the auction house itself

If Qatar’s ruler gets his way, the next bid at Christie’s won’t be just for artwork but for the auction house itself

A few months back, we reported on how Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has been building a portfolio of luxury assets with his nation’s estimated $100 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (and its principal subsidiaries such as Qatar Holding and Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co).

Following significant stakes in Porsche, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Fairmont Raffles hotels, various residential real estate assets around the world and an acquisition of Harrods, it was recently reported that Christie’s is next on Qatar’s wishlist. The auction house is a perfect fit for the emirate as it brands itself both as a more discreet luxury shopping hub (read our recent postcard from Doha) and as regional capital of culture and museums.

Bloomberg suggests that the ‘nationality’ of these luxury acquisitions (particularly British companies) is of strategic importance to Qatar when deciding on which elite assets to target

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani

Reuters’ take on the story

Robb Young
Robb Young

Contributor

Luxury & Fashion Business Journalist, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, Vogue.com Strategic Consultant, Swiss Textiles Award, Diptrics

RETAIL

Gulf State Hungry to Buy More Luxury Assets

by

Robb Young

|

This is the featured image caption
Credit : This is the featured image credit

If Qatar’s ruler gets his way, the next bid at Christie’s won’t be just for artwork but for the auction house itself

Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.

PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.

In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”

The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris

If Qatar’s ruler gets his way, the next bid at Christie’s won’t be just for artwork but for the auction house itself

If Qatar’s ruler gets his way, the next bid at Christie’s won’t be just for artwork but for the auction house itself

A few months back, we reported on how Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has been building a portfolio of luxury assets with his nation’s estimated $100 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (and its principal subsidiaries such as Qatar Holding and Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co).

Following significant stakes in Porsche, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Fairmont Raffles hotels, various residential real estate assets around the world and an acquisition of Harrods, it was recently reported that Christie’s is next on Qatar’s wishlist. The auction house is a perfect fit for the emirate as it brands itself both as a more discreet luxury shopping hub (read our recent postcard from Doha) and as regional capital of culture and museums.

Bloomberg suggests that the ‘nationality’ of these luxury acquisitions (particularly British companies) is of strategic importance to Qatar when deciding on which elite assets to target

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani

Reuters’ take on the story

Robb Young
Robb Young

Contributor

Luxury & Fashion Business Journalist, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, Vogue.com Strategic Consultant, Swiss Textiles Award, Diptrics

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