Art Basel Qatar to Move to Al Maha Island as Lusail Museum Takes Shape
Art Basel Qatar is set to leave its two-site debut and move into a purpose-built venue on Al Maha Island in Lusail, the fast-growing district north of Doha. Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the sister of Qatar’s emir and a central figure in the country’s cultural strategy, said at a roundtable meeting that construction on the island project is targeted to begin in 2028.
The fair launched in February at the M7 culture hub and the Doha Design District, but the new location is designed to do more than host an annual event. According to the project statement, the mixed-use development will support exhibitions and other programming throughout the year, alongside recreation, hospitality, entertainment, and retail for an anticipated population of 450,000.
More than 150 houses are planned for the island, some designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, which is also developing the masterplan. The firm’s most prominent cultural commission there will be the Lusail Museum, conceived as a centerpiece attraction and described by Jacques Herzog as “a vertically layered souk or miniature city contained within a single structure.”
The museum is expected to hold what Qatar says will be the world’s largest collection of Orientalist painting and photography, with works by Titian, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Paul Klee among the names represented. Sheikha Al-Mayassa said the sequence of development matters: Qatar wants the museum underway before the houses are sold, so residents do not arrive to a construction site.
She also framed the project in geopolitical terms, saying the museum’s purpose is tied to the question of how to “reimagine a world that brings people together.” That message landed against the backdrop of regional tensions following the US-Iran war and, she noted, after what she called a successful inaugural fair.
Qatar Museums also announced a slate of upcoming exhibitions that extends the country’s cultural calendar well beyond the fair itself. Among them are Uzbekistan, Heritage in Motion at the Islamic Art Museum from September 3 to November 28; The Inner Flow of Life by the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Penone at the National Museum of Qatar from October 26 to February 13, 2027; and Rubaiya Qatar, a new nationwide contemporary art quadrennial opening November 21 and running through April 30, 2027.
Taken together, the plans show Qatar continuing to build not just a fair, but an interlocking cultural district where museums, exhibitions, and urban development are being advanced in tandem.
