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René Magritte's surrealist masterpiece *La Magie Noire*, unseen on the market for nearly a century, will be auctioned at Sotheby's Paris later this month with an estimate over $8 million. The painting was originally purchased by the family of WWII resistance heroine Suzanne Spaak, who supported Magritte during a financially difficult period. Separately, three major museums designed by star architect David Adjaye—the Princeton University Art Museum, the Museum of West African Art in Benin City, and the Studio Museum in Harlem—are set to open this fall, but institutions are downplaying Adjaye's involvement following sexual misconduct allegations he denied in 2023. Other news includes Pace Gallery closing its Hong Kong space, Colnaghi opening in Riyadh, and the death of ARTnews owner Milton Esterow.

Seoul Gets an Intriguing New Art Fair—Plus, a Rundown of the Latest in Asia’s Art World

The Asian art landscape is undergoing significant shifts, headlined by the launch of Hive Art Fair in Seoul, which introduces a fee-free booth model focused on B2B corporate collaborations. Major institutional moves include the appointment of Melissa Chiu as the new director of the Guggenheim Museum and the opening of the Black Gold Museum in Riyadh. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Museum of History has reopened with a controversial thematic revamp that emphasizes Chinese heritage over colonial history.

Riyadh’s New Black Gold Museum Attempts to Convey ‘The Legacy of Oil Through Art’

The Black Gold Museum has officially opened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as a flagship project of the nation’s Vision 2030 initiative. Housed in a Zaha Hadid-designed complex and directed by Jack Persekian, the institution features over 350 artworks by 170 international and local artists, including Manal AlDowayan and Doug Aitken. The museum explores the history and cultural impact of oil through four thematic sections—Encounter, Dreams, Doubts, and Visions—blending historical narrative with contemporary artistic reflection.

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Frieze will launch an Abu Dhabi edition in November 2026, shortly after Art Basel opens in Qatar in February 2026, joining Art Dubai and Art Week Riyadh in an increasingly crowded Middle Eastern art fair landscape. Meanwhile, Chanel has opened mainland China's first public contemporary art library, Espace Gabrielle Chanel, at Shanghai's Power Station of Art, housing over 50,000 books and audiobooks. In other news, New York Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani named an arts transition committee including Elizabeth Alexander and Ruba Katrib, and London's major museums have seen a surge in large philanthropic donations, including a £10.3 million pledge to the British Museum and two £150 million gifts to the National Gallery.

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Saudi Arabia is significantly scaling back its ambitious "Vision 2030" cultural and infrastructure spending due to falling oil prices and massive budget overruns. Major international projects, including a $200 million investment deal with the Metropolitan Opera in New York and funding for the Centre Pompidou’s refurbishment, are currently in limbo or facing payment delays. Reports of unpaid invoices to art service firms and the halting of "gigaprojects" like Neom suggest a period of financial retrenchment for the kingdom.

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Saudi Arabia announced over 5 billion Saudi riyals ($1.3 billion) in new cultural funds and agreements at the first Cultural Investment Conference in Riyadh, held under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Key developments include a partnership with Deutsche Bank for training and cultural exchanges, the immediate establishment of the Riyadh University of Arts (opening 2026 with film, performing arts, and theater programs), and a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Culture and the Royal Commission for AlUla to boost cultural infrastructure in the AlUla oasis.

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Saudi Arabia announced over 5 billion Saudi riyals ($1.3 billion) in new cultural funds and agreements at the first Cultural Investment Conference in Riyadh, held under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Key initiatives include a partnership with Deutsche Bank for training and cultural exchanges, and the immediate establishment of the Riyadh University of Arts, set to open in 2026 with courses in film, performing arts, and theater. The Ministry of Culture also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Royal Commission for AlUla to boost cultural infrastructure in the AlUla oasis.

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The editor's letter for the 2025 ARTnews Top 200 Collectors issue recounts a cinematic moment at Art Week Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, where a government-affiliated collector described their role as "everyone and no one," reflecting the behind-the-scenes, museum-focused art acquisitions under Vision 2030. The issue features a report by Melissa Gronlund on the Gulf art scene, noting that Saudi Arabia is prioritizing museums and noncommercial programming before an independent market can emerge, while private collectors and foundations are also gaining ground. The article also highlights the cooling art market in Europe and the US, with collector Christen Sveaas criticizing blue-chip galleries for over-commercial pricing strategies.

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The article reports on the rapid expansion of the Gulf art scene, with a packed calendar of events from November to March including Abu Dhabi Art, the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Noor Riyadh, Desert X AlUla, Art Basel Qatar, Art Dubai, and the Sharjah Biennial. Institutional buying is surging as Abu Dhabi prepares to open its Guggenheim, Qatar Museums acquires for the Art Mill, and Saudi Arabia buys for multiple planned museums. The number of collectors is also growing, driven by a "Covid bounce" of high-net-worth individuals relocating from Europe and India to tax-efficient Dubai and Doha, with 6,700 millionaires moving to the UAE in 2024 alone.

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During a panel at Art Basel in June, Qatar's Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, chairperson of Qatar Museums, declared that competition is a Western concept, responding to the upcoming launch of Art Basel Qatar in 2026 and the Gulf region's increasingly packed cultural calendar. From November to March, events such as Abu Dhabi Art, the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Noor Riyadh, Desert X AlUla, Art Dubai, and the Sharjah Biennial now occur almost weekly, as Gulf nations invest heavily in building contemporary art scenes. The number of collectors is surging due to a "Covid bounce" that brought high-net-worth individuals from Europe and India to tax-efficient Dubai and Doha, with 6,700 millionaires relocating to the UAE in 2024 alone. Institutional buying is also rising, with Abu Dhabi preparing for its Guggenheim opening, Qatar Museums acquiring for the Art Mill, and Saudi Arabia buying for multiple planned museums.

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The Diriyah Biennale Foundation has announced the artist list for the third edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, opening January 30 in the JAX District of Diriyah, near Riyadh. Titled “In Interludes and Transitions,” the biennale is curated by Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed and features over 65 artists, including more than 20 new commissions. Participants range from historic figures like Pacita Abad and Etel Adnan to emerging voices such as Raven Chacon and Dineo Seshee Bopape, working across painting, installation, film, sound, architecture, and publishing.

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Sotheby's will hold its second auction in Saudi Arabia on January 31, 2026, following a successful inaugural sale in Diriyah in February 2024 that netted $17.3 million. The upcoming sale, titled "Origins," features over 70 works by established Saudi Arabian and Middle Eastern artists alongside international names, with top lots including a Pablo Picasso painting estimated at $2–3 million and works by Jean Dubuffet, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol. The auction aims to build on lessons from the first sale, which revealed strong demand across price points and generational diversity among buyers.

MENA Artists Are Having a Market Moment That’s Built to Last

Auction sales for artists from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region rose 9.4% to $33.2 million in 2025, driven by increased activity from international auction houses and the emergence of new hubs like Riyadh. The Sotheby's 'Origins' sale in Saudi Arabia achieved $17.3 million, setting artist records, while works from Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq saw particularly strong gains, indicating a market rebalancing.

Riyadh Art Extends Its Citywide Permanent Collection

Riyadh Art, a public art initiative led by the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, is expanding its Permanent Collection with 115 new installations planned through 2026 and beyond, adding to the 75 works already installed across the Saudi capital. The collection includes works by international artists such as Alexander Calder, Anish Kapoor, Jeff Koons, Giuseppe Penone, and Ugo Rondinone, alongside Saudi practitioners like Zaman Jassim and Mohammed Al Saleem, with recent additions including Calder's 'Janey Waney' and Nobuo Sekine's 'Phase of Nothingness'.

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Riyadh Art has launched an open call for the seventh edition of Tuwaiq Sculpture, scheduled for January and February 2026 under the theme 'Traces of What Will Be.' The open call runs from August 27 to October 1, 2025, inviting sculptors worldwide to submit proposals for a live sculpting experience in Riyadh. Twenty-five artists will be selected to create original works that will be permanently installed across the city. An international curatorial team has been announced: U.K.-based Sarah Staton, German-born Rut Blees Luxemburg, and Saudi artist Lulwah Al Homoud. The edition introduces two new sculpting categories—Granite + Stainless Steel Integration and Reclaimed Metal—and selected artists receive an honorarium plus travel and accommodation support.

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Bonhams, the New York-based auction house, will hold its first exhibition in Saudi Arabia next month. Titled "Judhoor / Roots: The Origins of Saudi Modernism," the three-day show opens October 8 at the LIFT Gallery in Riyadh's JAX District, followed by a London auction on November 25. The exhibition surveys Saudi modern art from early pioneers like Abdulrahman Al Soliman, Safeya Binzagr, and Mohammed Al Saleem to later generations, highlighting works such as Al Saleem's horizon paintings and Al Soliman's 1981 depiction of Al-Ahsa oasis made with local soil. It also features archival material from Dar Al-Funoon, Saudi Arabia's first modern art space, and foregrounds female voices, including Binzagr, the first woman to stage a solo exhibition in the kingdom. A panel discussion will accompany the show, cohosted by collectors Taha Al Kuwaiz and Muneera Al Touq.

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The National Museum of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh has launched "Bedayat: Beginnings of Saudi Art Movement," a landmark survey exhibition documenting the evolution of the country’s art scene from the 1960s through the 1980s. Curated by Qaswra Hafez and commissioned by the Visual Arts Commission, the show features a vast array of paintings, sculptures, and never-before-seen archival materials. The exhibition is organized into three sections that explore the foundations of the movement, the influence of modernization on daily life, and the specific contributions of four modernist pioneers: Mohammed Al-Saleem, Safeya Binzagr, Mounirah Mosly, and Abdulhalim Radwi.

Saudi Arabia looks to its Modern art history as the art world eyes up the Gulf

Saudi Arabia is actively showcasing its Modern art history through major exhibitions and sales. The 'Beginnings of Saudi Art Movement' at the National Museum in Riyadh features over 250 works by 73 artists from the 1960s-1980s, highlighting pioneering figures like Mounirah Mosly and Safeya Binzagr. Simultaneously, the Desert X AlUla exhibition is displaying monumental, long-unseen sculptures by Modernist artist Mohammed AlSaleem.

Riyadh continues to bet big on public art: over 100 new works to be installed in the Saudi capital in the coming years

Riyadh continua a scommettere forte sull’arte pubblica: nei prossimi anni oltre 100 nuove opere installate nella capitale saudita

Saudi Arabia is significantly expanding its Riyadh Art public art initiative, with plans to install over 100 new monumental works across the capital city in the coming years. Following the recent Tuwaiq Sculpture 2026 event, which added 25 stone and metal sculptures to the permanent collection, the city has announced 12 new site-specific installations by high-profile international artists including Anselm Kiefer, El Anatsui, and Manal AlDowayan. The project aims to reach a total of 115 new commissions, building upon a collection that already features masters like Anish Kapoor, Jeff Koons, and Giuseppe Penone.

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Saudi Arabia has commissioned New York-based artist Domingo Zapata to create what is being billed as the world's largest mural, spanning 540,000 square feet. The project, part of the $63 billion Diriyah cultural zone development in Riyadh, is backed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and will involve a team of about 100 artists working over four to six years, with Zapata describing it as having "a blank check" for creative freedom.

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Spanish artist Domingo Zapata has been commissioned by Saudi Arabia to create the world's largest mural, a 540,000-square-foot work the size of nine football fields. The project, part of the $63 billion Diriyah cultural zone in Riyadh, will take five to six years to complete and involves a team of about 100 artists, engineers, and architects. Zapata describes it as a "Middle Eastern version of the Sistine Chapel."

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The seventh edition of the Tuwaiq Sculpture symposium has opened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Titled "Traces of What Will Be," the month-long event features 25 international artists creating large-scale, site-specific sculptures in a public, live-sculpting phase. The open-air exhibition showcases works made from local stone and reclaimed materials, responding to themes of memory, sustainability, and the relationship between humans and their environment.

Monumental commissions and pioneering women artists take centre stage at Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026

The third edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale has opened in Riyadh’s JAX District under the title 'In Interludes and Transitions.' Curated by Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed, the exhibition features over 65 artists from 35 countries, focusing on themes of migration, oral storytelling, and the movement of ideas across borders. The show is housed in repurposed 1970s industrial warehouses with a scenography designed by Formafantasma that emphasizes intimacy despite the monumental scale of the venues.

Sotheby’s Origins II Returns to Riyadh

Sotheby’s is returning to Riyadh for the second edition of its Origins sale, titled Origins II, with a live auction scheduled for 31 January. The sale will feature over 70 lots spanning Modern and Contemporary Art, Ancient Sculpture, and 20th-Century Design, including works by Saudi pioneer Safeya Binzagr, Iraqi artist Mahmoud Sabri, and Pablo Picasso. The auction coincides with the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale and the debut of Art Basel Doha, and will be preceded by a public exhibition at Diriyah’s Bujairi Terrace from 24 to 31 January.

Sarah Alruwayti on Riyadh's Shift from Vision to Execution

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Sarah Alruwayti, director of the Tuwaiq Sculpture Symposium, discusses the evolution of Riyadh Art’s public art initiatives under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. The symposium has grown from a local project into a global open-call forum, commissioning over 120 international sculptors to create permanent works using local materials like Saudi granite and reclaimed metal. The latest edition, themed "Traces of What Will Be," focuses on urban transformation and the historical context of Riyadh’s changing landscape.

From oil to canvas: Saudi Arabia’s emerging art economy

Saudi Arabia's art market reached a significant milestone with Sotheby’s second "Origins" auction in Riyadh, headlined by the $2.1 million sale of Safeya Binzagr’s painting "Coffee Shop in Madina Road." This record-breaking event, which nearly doubled its high estimate, underscores the rapid growth of the Kingdom’s art economy under the Vision 2030 plan. The auction saw a mix of local and international buyers, signaling that Saudi artists are increasingly being integrated into the global contemporary art dialogue.

Who is Safeya Binzagr? Meet the Saudi artist who outsold Picasso

A painting by Saudi artist Safeya Binzagr, 'Coffee Shop in Madina Road' (1968), sold for $2.1 million at a Sotheby's auction in Riyadh, setting a new auction record for the artist. The sale price exceeded that of a work by Pablo Picasso sold at the same event, making it the third-highest price ever achieved for an Arab artist at auction in Saudi Arabia.

Vittoria Matarrese new director of the Magasin in Grenoble

Vittoria Matarrese nouvelle directrice du Magasin de Grenoble

Vittoria Matarrese has been appointed as the new director of the Magasin, the National Center for Contemporary Art in Grenoble. The Italian architect and curator, who previously held positions at the Villa Medici in Rome, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and the Bally Foundation in Lugano, and most recently led the first Art Week Riyadh, succeeds Céline Kopp. Her appointment comes as the institution seeks a new direction after a prolonged period of crisis.

Beginnings: Mapping the Origins of Saudi Modern Art in Riyadh

Mapping Saudi Modern Art’s Origins: “Bedayat” in Riyadh

The exhibition 'Bedayat: Beginnings of the Saudi Art Movement' at Riyadh's National Museum showcased over 250 artworks from the 1960s to 1980s, a period of rapid modernization. It featured archival materials like exhibition catalogs and scholarship letters, alongside paintings grouped into themes such as 'Faces and Features' and 'Social Life,' though the curation largely avoided direct commentary on the era's intense socio-political debates.

The 'Re:Wilding' Group Exhibition Gathers Artistic Voices in Riyadh

The independent group exhibition 'Re:Wilding' opens in Riyadh's JAX District at Misnad Gallery, coinciding with the 2026 Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale. Co-curated by Dena Nahar AlSaud and Dalya Suha Islam, the show features five Saudi and regional artists—Sireen Khalifah, Noor Alwan, Abdullah Al Amoudi, Khadija Arif, and Mashael Alsaie—working across painting, photography, and textiles. The exhibition explores themes of memory, imagination, and the Jungian inner child, aiming to rekindle curiosity and play in adult life.