Displaying items by tag: Qatar Museums

Paul Gauguin's  1892 painting, Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?), is coming to the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.

The most expensive painting ever sold was reportedly purchased by the Qatar Museums for nearly $300 million back in February, smashing the old record for Paul Cézanne's late 19th century work, The Card Players, which sold for an estimated $250 million.

A new record price for an artwork, nearly $300 million, may have been achieved with the sale of a Paul Gauguin canvas by a Swiss collector. The buyer is rumored to be the Qatar Museums.

The seller, Rudolf Staechelin, a retired Sotheby's executive who now lives in Basel, confirmed the sale this afternoon to the "New York Times," but declined to identify the buyer or disclose the price. The 1892 oil painting, "Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?)," is one of over 20 works in his collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Prior to the sale, the Gauguin canvas had been on loan to the Kunstmuseum in Basel for close to fifty years.

Guy Bennett, a former auction house expert and dealer based in London has been tapped by Qatar Museums (formerly Qatar Museums Authority). According to Carol Vogel in the "New York Times," Qatar Museums announced this week that Bennett will become the institution's director of collections and acquisitions. A 13-year veteran of Christie's auction house, specializing in 20th-century art, Bennett left the company in 2009. Later that year, he formed Pelham Holdings, an art advisory firm.

Edward J. Dolman, chairman of Christie’s International, is leaving the auction house to join the board of the Qatar Museums Authority.

A Christie’s employee for 27 years, Dolman will be working directly for the emir’s daughter, Mayassa Bint Hamad Al Thani, as the executive director of her office, the London-based auction house said today in an e-mailed statement.

Dolman, 51, became chairman of Christie’s in September 2010, when Steven Murphy, the former president and chief executive of the U.S.-based publishing company Rodale Inc., succeeded him as CEO.

Dolman had been appointed CEO in December 1999 after spending several years as a European furniture specialist.

Qatar’s museums authority administers collections of Islamic art, Orientalist paintings, natural history, photography, armor, Islamic coins, costumes and jewelry.

In October 2010, the emir said he may be interested in acquiring the London-based auction house, the Financial Times reported, after months of speculation about a possible Qatari bid. Christie’s remains a private company owned by the French billionaire Francois Pinault. The auction house was bought by his holding company, Groupe Artemis SA, for $1.2 billion in May 1998.

Active Buyers

The new National Museum of Qatar, designed by Jean Nouvel, is scheduled to open in December 2014, according to the authority’s website. Members of the Qatari royal family have been active buyers of Western modern and contemporary art in recent years.