Not too long ago, Christie’s auction facilitated the selling of a spectacular Francis Bacon painting, which was bought off for the staggering price of $142 million. Up until now, nobody knew the identity of the wealthy art lover who purchased this exquisite piece, but the New York Post recently shed some light on the matter when it identified none other than Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad al-Thani as the new owner of the Francis Bacon Triptych.
Since she is the sister of Qatar’s emir, Sheikha Mayassa enjoys access to vast sums of money, but she is actually the head of the Qatar Museums Authority – a position that made her famous for millions in order to secure the ownership of the world’s most prized works of art. Sheikha Mayassa is managing the royal family’s art-related budget, which is estimated to surpass $1 billion a year.
Things are going quite well for Qatar as of late, since the famed country is getting ready to host the 2022 World Cup, which equals an increase in popularity. This can only mean good things for the Sheikha and the QMA, since she is planning to open a new national museum in 2016 in order to highlight the country’s vast art collection. Sheikha Mayassa owns numerous other famed art pieces such as Paul Cezanne’s “The Card Players”, which was purchased for a record-breaking sum of $250 million.
