{"id":27635,"date":"2026-03-08T14:39:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T14:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/27635\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T14:39:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T14:39:27","slug":"israeli-airstrike-on-doha-shows-risk-of-planning-art-basel-fair-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/27635\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Airstrike on Doha Shows Risk of Planning Art Basel Fair There"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOn Tuesday, Israel<\/a> carried out a missile strike in Doha, Qatar<\/a>, targeting senior Hamas leaders. Explosions rocked the city\u2019s Leqtaifiya neighborhood, with smoke seen rising over the Katara district\u2014a cultural hub known for its restaurants and art exhibitions. Qatar\u2019s main art institutions, operated by Qatar Museums\u2014including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of Qatar, and the Museum of Islamic Art\u2014are located some distance from the strike zone.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe strike is a shock to Qatar, a small Persian Gulf nation better known for its oil and natural gas wealth, its hosting of the 2022 World Cup, and its rapidly growing cultural sector.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"TEL<\/p>\n

\n\tIn May, that cultural profile got a major boost when Art Basel announced it would partner with Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) and QC+\u2014a subsidiary of the country\u2019s sovereign wealth fund and the commercial arm of Qatar Museums, respectively\u2014to launch a Doha fair next February. The announcement, made one month before the opening of Basel\u2019s flagship fair in Switzerland, said the inaugural edition of Art Basel Doha would take place at M7, a creative hub in the Doha Design District.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Art Dubai and the Abu Dhabi Art Fair have run for more than a decade, the arrival of Art Basel was seen as ushering in a new era for the Gulf\u2014long positioned as the next frontier for dealers seeking to tap new collectors<\/a> amid a struggling global art trade.<\/p>\n

\n\tTuesday\u2019s strike now appears to put that growth\u2014fueled by Qatar\u2019s reputation for economic and political stability in a volatile region\u2014at risk. In June, just weeks after the Art Basel announcement, Iran launched a missile attack on the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. But that strike came with advance warning to both Qatar and the US, the missiles were intercepted, and no casualties were reported. Framed as a symbolic retaliation for US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, the strike was widely seen as more posturing than escalation. Earlier this month, Iran and Qatar announced they had \u201cfully resolved\u201d<\/a> the issue.<\/p>\n

\n\tTuesday\u2019s Israeli strike, by contrast, came without warning. While the White House has said it provided advance notice to Qatar, the country\u2019s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, called such claims \u201cbaseless.\u201d Hamas said in a statement that no senior leaders were killed in the attack, though several others\u2014including the son of Khalil al-Hayya, the group\u2019s chief negotiator\u2014were.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe obvious question now is whether collectors and dealers\u2014often wary of even the hint of instability\u2014will still travel to Doha, especially if the strike sparks retaliation or escalates into outright conflict between Israel and Qatar.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur team is closely monitoring developments in Doha and staying in regular contact with our partners,\u201d an Art Basel spokesperson said in a statement to ARTnews. \u201cWe remain wholly committed to delivering a successful inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar<\/a> in February 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tQatar has long hosted senior Hamas leadership and has played a central role in negotiations between the group, Israel, and the United States over ending the war in Gaza. Since Israel launched its air and ground invasion of Gaza following Hamas\u2019s October 7, 2023, attack, numerous ceasefire talks have taken place in Qatar\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Qatari government pulled no punches in its response. In a call with President Trump, Emir Tamim bin Hamad reportedly said Qatar would \u201ctake all necessary measures to protect its security and preserve its sovereignty.\u201d Al-Ansari, the foreign ministry spokesperson, called the strike a \u201ccriminal assault\u201d and a \u201cblatant violation of all international laws and norms.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday, Israel carried out a missile strike in Doha, Qatar, targeting senior Hamas leaders. Explosions rocked the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[266,77,1731,599],"class_list":{"0":"post-27635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basel","8":"tag-art-basel-qatar","9":"tag-basel","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-qatar"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116194073847140168","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}