Collecting practices of the Al-Thani Family

The House of Thani, the ruling family of Qatar, has played a significant role in developing the country’s cultural and artistic institutions since the early 2000s.^[1] Their initiatives are connected to Qatar National Vision 2030, a national framework that promotes education, cultural investment, and sustainable development.^[2] They also work to promote art and cultural initiatives in Qatar. Introduced under the family’s rule, Project Qatar National Vision 2030 promotes the creation of new schools, new universities, and new museums.^[3] The cultural development, characterized by new museums and exhibitions, is closely linked to the socio-economic motive of building a "knowledge-based economy" in Qatar by 2030.^[4]

Entrance to the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum.

Qatar’s cultural policy, shaped under the Al Thani family, has focused on establishing museums, art collections, and educational programs designed to support the country’s transition toward a knowledge-based economy. This approach differs from the international franchise model used in neighboring Abu Dhabi, where branches of major Western museums have been established.^[5]

Collecting strategy of the Al-Thani family

Key figures

Members of the Al Thani family have been central to Qatar’s involvement in art collecting and museum development.^[6]

• Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali Al Thani owns one of the largest collections of modern Arab art, numbering over 6,000 works.^[6] His collection, developed since the 1980s, became the foundation of the Mathaf Museum in Doha.^[7]
• Saud bin Muhammed Al Thani assembled a major collection of Islamic manuscripts, carpets, instruments, and jewellery, contributing to the creation of the Museum of Islamic Art and other national collections.^[1]
• Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani heads the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA), responsible for overseeing national museums and exhibitions. She has appeared in international rankings such as Forbes and Art+Auction due to her leadership of Qatar’s museum network and its acquisition strategy.^[8]

Role in the art market

Qatar became a major buyer in the international art market in the 2000s and 2010s. In 2011, The Art Newspaper identified Qatar as the world’s leading purchaser of contemporary art.^[9] According to market analysts, the country often paid premium prices for high-profile artworks, positioning Doha as a regional art hub.^[10]

Large financial resources

The royal family and Qatar's cultural institution are upscale subscribers to the databank on art prices and indices Artprice Group. A study conducted by Artprice and Organ Museum Research over the period 2000-2012 revealed that Qatar bid for artworks with a margin of 40 to 45% above "market prices". Forbes estimates that the annual budget for the sole Qatar Museum Authority is about $250 million.^[11]

The chief executive of the Fine Art Fund Group, an art investment management and consulting firm based in London, estimates that Qatari buyers make up 25 percent of the Middle East's $11 billion art market.

Al-Thani's art collection: overview

Audubon, Snowy Owl

The Al Thani family’s collections encompass traditional Islamic art, Western modern art, and Arab contemporary art.

Islamic and antique collections

The family’s holdings include Islamic manuscripts, textiles, scientific instruments, and decorative objects from across the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.^[12] Notable items include a complete edition of John James Audubon’s Birds of America and examples of Persian miniatures and Mughal jewellery.^[13]

Western art

The Al Thani collection includes modern and contemporary works by artists such as Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Jeff Koons, and Damien Hirst.^[14] Among the most well-known pieces is Paul Cézanne’s The Card Players, acquired for the national collection in the 2010s.

Middle-Eastern and North African art

In addition to building collections of world art, the Al-Thani family is committed to developing Arab contemporary art and supporting regional artists. Sheikh Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali Al Thani began buying Arab art in the mid-1980s and started collaborating with artist and art educator Yousef Ahmad in 1986.

Hassan Al-Thani supported Iraqi artists after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the first Gulf War and owns an extensive collection of art pieces by well-known Iraqi artists Ismail Fatah Al Turk and Shakir Hassan Al Said. His collection of Iraqi art is known as the biggest in the world.^[15] The exhibition for the opening of Mathaf in December 2010 featured art pieces by several Arab artists,^[16] including French artists of Algerian origin Kader Attia and Zineb Sedira, Iraqi Adel Abidin, Palestinian Khalil Rabah, Moroccans Farid Belkahia and Mounir Fatmi, Egyptians Ahmed Nouar and Ghada Amer, and Lebanese Walid Raad.

Photography

Saud Al-Thani bought quite important photographs collections, notably 136 vintage photographs including pieces by Alfred Stieglitz and Man Ray in 2000 and a black and white photograph by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey in 2003 for £565,250, which settled a new world record.

Al-Thani's collection displayed: museums and exhibitions

With such wide art collections, Qatar proceeds for several years to build museums and to sponsor exhibition to host them. It makes part of Qatar's strategy to be acknowledged as a main worldwide actor.

Museums

Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, designed by I.M. Pei

Qatar Museums Authority

Established in 2005, the Qatar Museums Authority coordinates the country’s museum projects and cultural programs. According to The Economist, the agency plays a key role in shaping national cultural policy while remaining closely connected to the royal family’s initiatives.^[1]

Museum of Islamic Art

The Museum of Islamic Art opened in 2008, designed by architect I. M. Pei.^[17] An adjoining public space, MIA Park, opened in 2011 and includes Richard Serra’s sculpture 7.

Mathaf

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art opened in December 2010. The museum focuses on modern and contemporary Arab art and aims to increase the visibility of regional artists. Its founder, Sheikh Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali Al Thani, described it as a way to preserve and display Arab artistic heritage.^[18]

National Museum of Qatar

The National Museum of Qatar opened in 2019, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. It presents the natural and cultural history of the country, from prehistoric times to the present.

Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Museum

Founded in 1998 by Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani, the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum houses more than 15,000 artifacts representing Qatari heritage and international history.^[19]

Exhibitions and events

In addition to building museums, the Al Thani family and Qatar Museums have sponsored international and regional exhibitions, including:

• Murakami-Ego (2012), by Takashi Murakami, presented in Doha as part of the Qatar–Japan 2012 cultural exchange.^[20]
• Conscious and Unconscious (2012), a retrospective of Louise Bourgeois organized by Qatar Museums Authority.^[21]
• The Al Thani Award for Photography, established in 2001, which expanded from a local event to an international photography competition by 2006.^[22]

See also

• Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali Al Thani
• Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani
• Mathaf
• Qatar Museums Authority

Sources

• "Art and the Middle East: Qatar's culture Queen", The Economist, 31 March 2012
• Georgina Adam and Charlotte Burns, "Qatar revealed as the world's biggest contemporary art buyer", The Art Newspaper, 7 July 2011
• Robert Kluijver, "Introduction to the Gulf Art World"
• Christian Chesnot, Georges Malbrunot, Qatar: les clés du coffre-fort, Michel Lafont, March 2013