The art of banking

Where high finance meetings high culture

by Maya Sioufi

As Raymond Audi, chairman of Bank Audi, Lebanon’s largest bank, walked me through the four floors of their headquarters in Downtown Beirut, I would have thought I was in a major contemporary art gallery were it not for the bankers conducting their daily activities.
Banks across the world are building art collections and multi-million dollar pieces adorn the walls of the largest bank offices. Germany’s Deutsche Bank, which started its art collection in 1979, features the world’s largest corporate art collection. Its New York offices even have a different art theme for each floor. Picture working in that environment.

Related article: Bank Audi’s chairman on his love affair with art

Swiss bank UBS’ art collection features a painting by American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, with a similar one sold at Christies for over $4 million in November 2011. How better to impress clients than to have a piece by Lichtenstein hanging in the meeting room? The bank has a five-year partnership started in April 2012 with New York’s Guggenheim museum to identify and support a network of art, artists and curators from South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa.

Lebanese deck the halls

Similar to the décor of JP Morgan’s Wall Street offices, the entrance of Bank Audi’s main headquarters hosts a six-meter tower sculpture by French artist Jean Dubuffet. At auction in Christie’s in November 2011, a two-meter sculpture by Dubuffet fetched $1.2 million.
From French artists such as Dubuffet, Bernar Venet and Francois Rouan to Lebanese artists such as Paul Wakim, Jean Marc Nahhas and Shafiq Abboud, Bank Audi has a wide collection of modern and contemporary art in its Beirut headquarters with some valued at exorbitant prices.

Many pieces of contemporary art are owned by Lebanese banks

 

In its Swiss offices, the bank holds a collection of old masters’ paintings from renowned artists of the 16th century, such as Lucas Cranach the Elder, and the 17th century, such as Jan Van Goyen. Villa Audi, the bank’s art space in Beirut, hosts its collection of mosaic art, the bank’s first purchase of art pieces which started prior to the Lebanese civil war. The estimate of the entire art collection was not disclosed.

Bank Audi is not the only Lebanese bank building an art collection. Focusing primarily on Lebanese art, BankMed started developing its collection in 1995 and its modern art pieces are hung on the walls of its branches throughout Lebanon.

While the bank started its collection by acquiring a piece by a French artist, its focus is on Lebanese art, which now accounts for about 80 percent of its collection. The bank owns the largest private collection of the renowned late artist Paul Guiragossian.

“When we started investing in Guiragossian, we wanted to stop the pieces from leaving the country as a lot of people were buying his pieces and at that time, [the banks] were the only ones able to afford keeping the national heritage in the country,” says Diala Choucair, head of communication at BankMed who did not disclose the estimate of the bank’s art collection. Choucair, who takes charge of all matters related to art for the bank, is now keeping an eye out for pieces to embellish the bank’s new headquarters that will be completed in two years.

Beyond an art collection

Involvement with the art world goes beyond merely acquiring a piece for a corporate art collection. Some banks are turning sections of their premises into art spaces. Since 2011, Byblos Bank has held six exhibits in its headquarters in Beirut for Lebanese artists Chucrallah Fattouh, Charbel Samuel Aoun, Rawya Zantout, Hrair, Krikor Nourikian and Dory Younes.
Falling under the bank’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, the bank does not charge a fee for the sale of pieces during the exhibits. “We are now thinking of art as part of our CSR to help Lebanese emerging artists at different levels of maturity in their work. If promoting them means helping by buying a piece we will do it,” says Nada Tawil, head of communications at Byblos Bank. A piece by Aoun adorns the walls of the office of Semaan Bassil, vice chairman of the board and general manager of the bank.

A Jean Marc Nahhas sketch on an office wall in Bank Audi’s headquarters

 

Byblos Bank is not the only bank hosting exhibits in its offices. FFA Private Bank turns its first floor into an art space twice a year. With art consultant Nada Boulos el-Assaad on board since 2009, FFA provides local artists with a platform to display their pieces and, similar to Byblos Bank, does not take a fee for the sale of art pieces.

To support Lebanese art, FFA acquires a piece from each exhibition it hosts. Its collection now includes paintings by Marwan Sahmarani and Oussama Baalbaki, a photograph by Joe Kesrouani and a sculpture by May Rishani. “FFA invests primarily in Lebanese art but is open to works from the region. The main focus has been on semi-established artists but the focus is changing to emerging talents,” says Reem Moukarzel, FFA’s marketing and communication manager.

Behind the Beirut Art Fair

Extending sponsorship of art outside their offices, banks have backed the Beirut Art Fair since its debut in 2010. With over $2 million in sales and 11,000 visitors last year, organizers of the art fair are expecting sales of $3 million and 13,000 visitors at the fair in September. BankMed, the fair’s largest sponsor, has supported the event from the beginning. “It is a national effort more than a sponsorship,” says Choucair as she explains how the bank first decided to sponsor the fair in 2010.

In partnership with the organizers of the Beirut Art Fair, Byblos Bank sponsored a photography competition for Lebanese photographers last year. The winner of the competition, 25-year-old Dory Younes, hosted a solo exhibit in the bank’s headquarters in April 2013. The competition will take place this year as well, with the winner to be granted a solo exhibition in 2014.

Byblos Bank plans to focus on photography going forward as it develops its understanding of the art world. “You can’t be the blind leading the blind. We want to build credentials for people to start thinking about us [as art experts] so we decided to partner with the Beirut Art Fair so they teach us and we decided to help young photographers,” adds Tawil.

Cutting edge partnerships

Up until this year, the involvement of the banking sector with art involved corporate art collections, hosting art exhibits or sponsoring events. However, in May, the AUB Byblos Bank Art Gallery opened on the university’s campus to expose students to cutting-edge art.
The gallery, which is sponsored by Byblos Bank,  will host exhibitions for foreign and local artists with the first exhibition entitled “Art in Labor: Skill, De-skilling, Re-skilling,” running until July 27, 2013. The non-commercial gallery will host art “that can make you stop and think,” says Tawil.

A shoe by Lawrence Abu Hamdan and a long tube by NY-based Gregory Sholette are displayed in the art gallery at AUB.

Banks’ courtship with the art world is taking on different shapes and forms. As these activities help brush the image of the banks, they also aim to promote Lebanese artists. Given the lack of national museums and government funding for local talent, this support is welcome news for Lebanon’s growing and buzzing art scene.

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Maya Sioufi

Maya is a research consultant on Arab youth entrepreneurship and employment. She headed Executive's banking, finance and entrepreneurship sections from 2011 to 2013. Previously, she worked at JP Morgan in London in equity sales for three years. She holds an MSc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a BA in Economics from the American University of Beirut (AUB).   
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