The global financial downturn is taking its toll, especially on long, overcooked economies. The pain radiates across all sectors of the art industry, with many looking for a silver bullet of relief. 

Shrinking national budgets and populist governments are making many institutional curators in the public sector contemplate the unfathomable. Among the most noteworthy is Glenn Lowry, who didn’t miss a beat when retiring from New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in September. One of the highest-paid museum directors (USD 2 million a year, along with a USD 6 million housing “allowance”), the American art historian is apparently going back to his roots as an Islamic scholar and heading to oil-rich Saudi Arabia. He has been tapped to advise the Islamic Arts Biennale in 2027—and has surely negotiated a handsome budget for himself and the entire project. On top that, he is also advising Kiran Nadar and her eponymous museum in New Delhi. Kiran, incidentally, is married to Shiv Nadar, the richest tech billionaire in India.