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| Sunday, May 9, 2004 |
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| Sunday, May 9, 2004 |
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DOHA, the capital city of the Emirate of Qatar, is a tiny place, a mere dot on the map of West Asia. And yet, as one reads, it is poised to become, in a few years from now, a major presence in the world of art. And that because of the vision and energy of one man: Sheikh Saud al-Thani, cousin of the ruler of oil-rich Qatar, and one of the wealthiest art collector in the world. It might sound incredible, but there appears to be no limit to the money he can spend, or the expertise he is able to secure and commission. Every thought of this impassioned man seems to be directed towards making Doha the centre of Islamic art in the museum world, a cultural and educational hub. "Step by step", he says, "we want to become a very cultivated city". Designs aplenty Consider this: the Sheikh has made plans for building, within the next few years, five major museums, each designed by a world-famous architect. The architectural plans are all but ready, and the locations chosen. The buildings will be sited along the Corniche, the broad, palm-lined avenue that circles the central bay of Doha in the Persian Gulf. The National Council of Qatar, obviously motivated and inspired by the Sheikh, has already engaged some of the most distinguished names in the world of contemporary architecture. The celebrated Chinese-American architect, I.M. Pei, now in his 80s, has been persuaded to come out of his retirement and plan Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art, a ‘chunky, stone-clad building that will rise directly out of the water on an artificial island at one end of the Corniche". A Qatar National Library and National History Museum is planned, and for this the Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki, has produced an amazingly "futuristic structure which stands on three mammoth pillars": these will support an inverted pyramid suspended half-way up the pillars and house the Library, while the National History Museum will be housed below. Equally astounding are architect Santiago Calatrava’s plans for the Museum of Photography, "an ultra-light structure consisting of two immense curved ‘wings’ which will open and close with the light". In the heart of Doha, a castle designed by the Scottish architect Catherine Findlay will soon be converted into a Museum of Traditional Clothes and Textiles.
Given the staggering scale on which these plans have been made, one wonders if all this is not day-dreaming, a passionate collector and builder’s fantasy. But one would be wrong, if the sums of money that the Sheikh has been spending on acquiring objects over the last decade are any indication. Consider these figures: a diehard enthusiast for early photographs, Sheikh Saud bought at an auction in London, in 1999, a photograph by Gustave le Gray, "Grande vague a Sete", for 5,07,000 pounds sterling (which translates into just a little under Rs 4 cr); two major pieces of Islamic metalwork, a 10th century Cordoba hind, and a peacock, were bought by him, the first for 3.6 million pounds in 1997, and the latter for 9,00,000 pounds last year. The Sheikh’s love of art, and birds – there is a large menagerie that he maintains, among other things – led him to pay $ 8.8 million for the first edition of James Audubon’s Birds of America from the collection of the Marquis of Bute in New York some four years ago. These are not fancy figures: they are a part of the record of auction houses. "I don’t feel I have to compete for every object", the Sheikh says, "but when a great work of art comes up for sale, it’s never too expensive. I lost one object in terms of price (once), and now it has gone somewhere else, and I shall never get it." They are not there yet, but there is every indication that the museums that we speak of here will get built. Meanwhile, everything that the Sheikh has been acquiring is stored in a series of warehouses on his estate. These warehouses are already packed from floor to ceiling, as Georgina Adam, who spent some time in Doha interviewing the Sheikh, reported. Here, in these vaults, a statue from an English noble home stands next to a Benin bronze from Africa; next to them stands one of the finest Roman glass objects in the world; a Sassanian ‘lion carpet’ hangs on the wall; Egyptian antiquities line the shelves; the Art Deco bed that once belonged to the Maharaja of Indore is now flanked by two colossal bookcases, also designed by Ruhlmann. And to look after these priceless objects, and to catalogue them, highly paid curators have already been engaged. It is all so real that the Sheikh is already beginning to worry about what will happen to these collections, and to the museums he is building. There is the excitement of making something happen for the next generation of Qataris, but also the fear that his work will not be continued, if something were to happen to him. The Sheikh is young, not being 40 yet, but he wishes to achieve a lot quickly. One can understand that. The scene back home Qatar is small; it is a young country with a total population of 8 lakh. And it is going to have five world-class museums soon. And back home? A curious lack of urgency, bordering often upon indifference, prevails in matters relating to art. To take just one example: we have here the opportunity to build a great museum at Anandpur Sahib: the Khalsa Heritage Complex. A world-class architect, Moshe Safdi, was engaged to design it and he has done a superb job. A highly talented team of designers, got on contract by India’s premier institution, the National Institute of Design, was entrusted with the envisioning and execution of design, and is doing remarkable work. The building is nearly finished, but is the museum anywhere close to completion? Of course not. Things are beginning to move now, but after years of delay, indecision and politicking. What was lacking, one wonders? Money alone or also passion? Or the commitment to take pride in one’s heritage, and present it to the next generation? This feature was published on May 2, 2004 |
