Collecting practices of the Al-Thani Family

The ruling family of Qatar, the House of Thani, is deeply involved in the art field. For more than twenty years, some of its members have been accumulating numerous precious pieces of artwork.

The project Qatar National Vision 2030 promotes the creation of new schools, new universities, and new museums. The cultural development, characterized by new museums and exhibitions, is therefore closely linked to the political motive of building a “knowledge-based economy” in Qatar by 2030.

The journalist Barbara Pollack underlines the central role of the Al-Thani family while comparing Qatar's and Abu Dhabi’s cultural policies: "While Abu Dhabi is making a name for itself by building dramatic local satellites of the Louvres, the Guggenheim and the British Museum, Qatar's scheme of cultural nation building is much more homegrown, establishing its museums in the collections of its own royal family."