Guggenheim Museum

Once the undisputed land of conspicuous wealth and consumption, the United Arab Emirates is being squeezed by a large drop in oil prices. It's a shame this comes after the region's addiction to art has become fully entrenched. Sotheby's is planning its first contemporary art sale from its new Doha, Qatar branch on March 18, 2009 – also the opening day of the Art Dubai fair. Hell, it's enough to make you "scream" (see photo).

This looks like the triumph of ambition over common sense, but Sotheby's was probably too far into its Middle Eastern endeavors before the bottom fell out on the region's finances. And with Bonhams and Christie's already in town, Sotheby's had little choice but to follow.

The UAE has committed quickly to the art scene. Abu Dhabi is working on building a Louvre, and is erecting a Guggenheim. Last year, art auction revenues reached $34.9 million, up 70 percent from 2007. But, the upcoming auction should be tricky, particularly with the poor performance of the sector last fall in more established markets, like New York, London and Hong Kong.

In around two weeks, we'll see if Sotheby's will be able to make this new auction house work, or if it will fall victim to the greater recession-triggered decline in the art market. The Mei Moses All Art Index dropped 4.5 percent last year. This seems like a modest amount, but you need to remember that record-setting sales continued through the middle of the summer. Last May, Roman Abramovich was a billionaire with a new Francis Bacon piece in his collection. Today ... we know he feels pain, too. The second half of the year wiped out the first half's records and pulled prices down further.

It's a tough time to count on the market to make Sotheby's Doha a success, but the market doesn't give us choices.

[Photo: "El Grito" by Julio Aguilera]

Famed Abstract Expressionist Cy Twombly's 80th birthday is being celebrated with a major new touring retrospective. It just opened at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which notes that he is "one of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century's most influential artists."

To coincide with these events D.A.P. has published a comprehensive overview of Twombly's work titled Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons, a must-have for any serious connoisseur of contemporary art. Meanwhile, on Tuesday evening Sotheby's will auction off an important Twombly work, 1986's two-part Untitled, estimated at $4 - $6 million. We expect his work will prove recession-proof.

Part installation, part hotel, artist Carsten Höller's Revolving Hotel Room is New York's latest impossible-to-get reservation. Revolving Hotel Room is part of the Guggenheim Museum's theanyspacewhatever exhibit, a group of installations by 10 artists who commonly express exhibition space as an important medium.

During the day, visitors to the museum can inspect the four rotating discs upon which Höller has assembled areas to sleep, work and eat.

By night, guests willing to pay the $799 per night rate can sleep over (no word on whether the discs keep rotating while you sleep). Here's hoping the museum extends the exhibit past its January 6 end date -- every night up until then is already sold out.

I simply LOVE this collection of jewelry! Aptly named Restoration Rocks, each piece contains fragments of Frank Lloyd Wright's historic Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum that were set aside and saved during the 2007 restoration process. In the hands of jeweler Cara Tilker the little bits of concrete become wearable works of art that, due to the very nature of the material, are each individually unique and in limited edition. The collection is made of sterling silver and crystal clear acrylic, but a few of the pieces are also available in 14K gold by special order. Prices range from $125 - $4,350.

Via psfk