DAC announces its launch as the first platform in the Arab art world to combine advisory services, gallery practice, and artist management under a single framework. While this model has existed in Western markets for decades, DAC is the first to build it specifically for the realities, opportunities, and ambitions of the Arab art ecosystem.

The Arab art market carries extraordinary depth, and the conditions are now in place to give it the infrastructure it deserves. Artists are building internationally significant careers, while collectors and galleries are helping shape a more mature ecosystem. 

The launch comes after nearly two decades of sustained growth across the Arab art ecosystem. Since the first dedicated international auctions for Arab art emerged in the region in 2006, collectors, institutions, galleries, and artists have helped build a market that is increasingly interconnected, visible, and internationally relevant. 

  • 'Twenty years ago, collectors could rarely encounter works from Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and the Gulf within the...

    "Twenty years ago, collectors could rarely encounter works from Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and the Gulf within the same marketplace," says Dr. Basel Dalloul, Founder of DAC Advisory and Chairman of the Dalloul Art Foundation. "Today that foundation exists. The next step is building the infrastructure that helps artists, collectors, and galleries navigate it with greater confidence and transparency." 

    For Garo Bardakjian, Director of DAC Advisory, that opportunity lies in helping the market operate with greater clarity and confidence. 

  • 'The upside for Arab art is greater than almost anywhere else in the market,' he says. 'DAC exists to make...

    "The upside for Arab art is greater than almost anywhere else in the market," he says. "DAC exists to make that upside legible, by building the infrastructure that gives all three the tools to operate with confidence." 

    Transparency sits at the centre of the platform's approach. Combining market data, provenance research, pricing analysis, and regional expertise, it provides evidence-based guidance and establishes (what it calls) defensible pricing that can be clearly explained and supported. Alongside its advisory work, the platform supports artists in building recognizable practices and developing sustainable relationships with collectors and institutions.

    "Price  differences are not a mystery," says Bardakjian. "They are the result of identifiable factors, and we believe those factors should be transparent to everyone involved."

  • The launch also marks an evolution of Dr. Dalloul's long-standing work in the field. Through the Dalloul Art Foundation, he has spent decades collecting, researching, preserving, and sharing modern and contemporary Arab art. With DAC, that experience is being applied more directly to supporting artists and strengthening the conditions that allow careers to develop over time. 

    "Our role is to help artists build practices that are both creatively authentic and strategically sustainable. That means understanding the direction of their work and making informed decisions about how and when it evolves," says Bardakjian.

    Based in Beirut, DAC reflects Dr. Dalloul's belief that the city remains one of the region's most important cultural centres and a natural place from which to serve the broader Arab art ecosystem. 

    "A healthy art market is an informed one," says Dr. Dalloul. "It is a market built on knowledge, transparency, data, and a genuine commitment to culture. We are closer to that reality than many people realise, and I believe the growth ahead for Arab art will be extraordinary."