In the absence of growth, the art market now has “continuity”, according to Brennan. This is, of course, far preferable to the 22% drop in sales Christie’s registered in the first half of 2024. That inward investment in just one fund is $26.5bn more than Art Basel and UBS’s estimate for the total value of global art market sales last year. In May, MCH announced Qatar had been added to the Art Basel portfolio of venues. Marc Spiegler, the former global director of Art Basel, agrees that trying to sell art as a financial asset has been a disaster.