Seeking the secret of the Islamic Republic's art. No doubt there are downsides, but whenever I meet Iranian artists I sort of wish I was one. No one does bohemian chic quite like them. Even correcting for the skewed evidence of gallery crowds per se, it appears that a Persian extraction entails good hair, snappy dress sense and an elegant sense of humour. Compare the English birthrights of pasty skin, neurotic class sensitivity and teeth that don't deserve the name, and you see the attraction.
To pile enormity on enormity, the other department in which Iranians are infuriatingly blessed is their art itself. They justly dominate the Gulf scene, as a random sampling of Dubai galleries will show. The biggest names pack an increasing clout in the West, too: witness the preponderance of Haerizadehs and Fakhims at the recent Saatchi show in London. The latest opportunity to foam with jealousy at the glamour and accomplishment of the Iranian people took place at the Emirates Towers and B_asement Gallery earlier this week, when the competition for Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize came to town. The prize, which suffers the quaint-sounding acronym MOPCAP, employs a nail-biting tournament format with multiple juries and eliminations. A corps of international gallerists and collectors had been invited Dubai to view the work of the seven emerging artists who made the shortlist. Among the best were macabre flour-baby figures from the painter Vahid Chamani, documentary photography from Newsha Tavakolian, and a sort of electric blender in which the blade was replaced by the emblem from the Iranian flag, made by Mahmoud Bakhshi Moakhar. All seven artists will be shown at the Royal College of Art in London.
The shortlist seemed to meet the approval of the crowd at B_asement. Dana Yarger, from the Californian gallery group Breton Fine Art Associates, praised the accessibility of the chosen works, and there was moral support from an impressive contingent of established artists: Einoddin Sadeghzadeh, Sedaghat Jabbari and others. Many of those same artists were providing financial support, too. On April 11, The Emirates Towers staged an auction of works donated by their creators to Magic of Persia. The benefactors represented a cross-section of Iran's artistic aristocracy: among them were Shirin Neshat, Kamhan Khavarani and Monir Farmanfarmaian. Happily, the sale managed in some degree to escape the gravity of the art market at large. Over Dh2 million were raised, with art by Shirin Neshat inevitably pulling in the lion's share: one of the images from her Women of Allah series fetched around Dh129,000. As MOPCAP's chief executive Shirley Elghanian remarked, the sale was "very instrumental in bringing everybody's morale up... it can be done, pieces can go for the right price and good art will always remain as good art".
The proceeds from the sale will go to endow the prize itself, as well as to fund several charity projects. Magic of Persia runs 25 children's workshops at the British Museum each year, to educate school pupils about Persian history and Iranian culture. It also supports the Abu Dhabi Future Centre, an organisation caring for children with special needs, and the Omid E Mehr women's shelter in Tehran.
In an effort to find out why so much impressive work emanates from Iran, I put the question to the young photo-artist Behrouz Rae, who was one of the breakout successes at last year's auction. He explained with mock vehemence that Iranian artists hated one another and were motivated solely by bitter rivalry. The Iranian art market was propped up on the vanity of people who strived to outdo one another's collections. Finally, Tehran (where he lived) was hell - "But," he conceded, "I like hell."
I returned to Shirley Elghanian to present Rae's theory. Nonsense, she said firmly. The generosity of the donating artists "really was an indication of how much they love each other" - after all, the auction was held to benefit the next generation of talents. But she seemed to half agree, if in less colourful terms, with Rae's characterisation of Tehran. The engine of Iranian artists' creativity, she said, was "the censorship that has been imposed on them".
"We all know that every action has a reaction, and what goes up must come down," she said. "And this is just a reaction to their experiences in Iran, trying to break through them through their art." * Ed Lake
Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
HWJN
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Seven tips from Emirates NBD
1. Never respond to e-mails, calls or messages asking for account, card or internet banking details
2. Never store a card PIN (personal identification number) in your mobile or in your wallet
3. Ensure online shopping websites are secure and verified before providing card details
4. Change passwords periodically as a precautionary measure
5. Never share authentication data such as passwords, card PINs and OTPs (one-time passwords) with third parties
6. Track bank notifications regarding transaction discrepancies
7. Report lost or stolen debit and credit cards immediately
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
INDIA'S%20TOP%20INFLUENCERS
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Wallabies
Updated team: 15-Israel Folau, 14-Dane Haylett-Petty, 13-Reece Hodge, 12-Matt Toomua, 11-Marika Koroibete, 10-Kurtley Beale, 9-Will Genia, 8-Pete Samu, 7-Michael Hooper (captain), 6-Lukhan Tui, 5-Adam Coleman, 4-Rory Arnold, 3-Allan Alaalatoa, 2-Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1-Scott Sio.
Replacements: 16-Folau Faingaa, 17-Tom Robertson, 18-Taniela Tupou, 19-Izack Rodda, 20-Ned Hanigan, 21-Joe Powell, 22-Bernard Foley, 23-Jack Maddocks.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
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Sector: Water technology
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The specs: Lamborghini Aventador SVJ
Price, base: Dh1,731,672
Engine: 6.5-litre V12
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 770hp @ 8,500rpm
Torque: 720Nm @ 6,750rpm
Fuel economy: 19.6L / 100km
Torbal Rayeh Wa Jayeh
Starring: Ali El Ghoureir, Khalil El Roumeithy, Mostafa Abo Seria
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Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
List of officials:
Referees: Chris Broad, David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Andy Pycroft, Ranjan Madugalle and Richie Richardson.
Umpires: Aleem Dar, Kumara Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Sundaram Ravi, Paul Reiffel, Rod Tucker, Michael Gough, Joel Wilson and Paul Wilson.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
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Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
