April 30, 2007	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 12, 1428

DOHA: Oil and gas-rich Qatar which is poor in archaeological sites is vying to create a cultural scene by building museums and acquiring precious masterpieces.

“We have an immense collection of pieces coming from several countries, collected over 15 years, which will be displayed in a series of museums, the first of which should be inaugurated by the end of 2007 or early 2008,” said Sabiha al-Khemir, the director of Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art.

Among the diverse pieces are a bronze deer whose body is decorated with arabesque palm leaves, which was to adorn the fountain of a tenth century Andalusian palace.

Other items include a 12th century woman-bird on glossed ceramics from Syria, a white jade amulet from Mughul India, and a poem in calligraphy on Persian ceramics dating from the 13th century.

The museum rising on Doha’s waterfront was designed by American architect I.M. Pei, best known for designing the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris.

Its interiors and the display will be handled by the French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, who specialises in museums, Khemir added.

The small Gulf state, which has been dominated by the Al-Thani family since the mid-1800s, has a policy of steadily acquiring works of art in an effort to turn the desert emirate into a major international purchaser.

In 2003, a member of the Qatari ruling family, Sheikh Saud al-Thani, was identified as the art world’s biggest spender by New York magazine ARTnews.

In the space of just a few years he spent many hundreds of millions of dollars on antiques, Islamic art, photography, impressionist and Old Masters paintings, furniture, and jewellery, it said.

Sheikh Saud, a cousin of Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, reportedly spent more than 29.9 million dollars in one week in 2005 buying works of art in London.

According to Western reports, Sheikh Saud has since fallen from favour with the ruling family, but his acquisitions, made on behalf of the emir, are set to dominate exhibitions in a series of museums planned for Doha.

“Forty-two masterpieces that will be displayed in the halls of the future Museum of Islamic Art were put on show for the first time last June in the Louvre,” Khemir said.

Besides the Islamic art museum other cultural projects will include at least four other museums and a national library, entrusted to other world-renowned architects like the Spaniard Santiago Calatrava and the Japanese Arata Isozaki, Khemir said.

The projects include museums for photography and Orientalist works, as well as a Pharaonic museum.

Khemir rejects a suggestion that Qatar is launching a war for cultural supremacy against other Gulf states. “All our projects date back to more than five years, that is, well before anyone in the region showed interest in museums,” she said. Nevertheless, there does appear to a race on between a few Gulf states.

Three members of the United Arab Emirates — Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah — as well as the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah, all have cultural projects at least in the planning stage.

Abu Dhabi, the wealthy capital of the seven-member UAE, has kick-started plans to build four museums, including a Guggenheim, and another which will carry the Louvre brand name.—AFP