As headlines are dominated by the Syrian political crisis, new exhibitions in Damascus have drawn to a halt. But the city’s art gallery doors are still open. The conflict seems unlikely to deter the Syrian contemporary art boom that has lit up the market over the last five years. In 2007, a major work by Safwan Dahoul, a leading and much coveted Syrian painter, sold for $10,000. Today it reaches $150,000. The post-9/11 appetite for Arab culture may have played its part; as titles on Islam and the Middle East flew off the virtual shelves of amazon.com, art from the Middle East also experienced unprecedented international attention. Compared to artists from Lebanon, Morocco and Egypt, who were already relatively exposed to global galleries and collectors, Syria revealed itself to be an oil well of untapped talent, paint being the asset. Artwork prices soared, contemporary art galleries mushroomed and reports such
