Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar photographed for the Winter 2025/26 issue of LUX by Ben Cope

Two years ago, French-Iranian artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar moved from the south of France to Qatar, to the bemusement of many. Now, he finds himself one of the spearheads of a developing art scene turbocharged by the arrival of Art Basel Qatar this winter, and framed by a programme of museum openings to rival any in the world

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar is an enigma of a contemporary artist. Born in the teens, he subsequently lived in the UAE and London, building his practice and gaining business qualifications before settling in Cap-Ferrat, in the south of France. Over the past years, with his studio in this wealthy residential peninsula, he gained a roster of international collectors, as well as shows in London, Germany, and Monaco. Then, in 2023, he abruptly moved his practice and his family to Doha, Qatar. His gallerist, Setareh, meanwhile, is based in Berlin, Düsseldorf and London. Behnam-Bakhtiar will be having a solo show at Setareh London opening end of May 2026. 

Behnam-Bakhtiar’s move to Cap-Ferrat in 2010 presaged what would become today’s contemporary art and collector revival in the stretch from Cannes, through Cap-Ferrat itself, to Monaco. Not long after he moved to Doha, it appeared he had again predicted the flow of the global contemporary art ecosystem, when it was dramatically announced that his new home would host a new Art Basel fair — Art Basel Qatar — in February 2026.

A portrait of the artist in his Doha studio, photographed by Ben Cope

His practice, with its slurred abstract mixed-media oeuvres — light and joyous on the surface but hinting at either darkness or a different kind of tension underneath — has evolved even during his short time in Doha. His works seem more focused, more technical. His persona, at once thoughtful, combative, and soulful, remains as it always was: he can be as charming as anyone in his family (his great-uncle was, famously, the last prime minister appointed by the Shah of Iran), as hermetic as any artist (as he explains in our interview below), and as efficient as a business leader.

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Behnam-Bakhtiar speaks openly about his personal traumas. He is not an easy person — but then, what real artist is? And his art is good enough for me to have bought (at full price), and it has developed since. We are looking forward to seeing how this unique mid-career artist develops with the burgeoning art scene in Qatar.

Darius Sanai

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s Doha studio, showcasing the oils he uses to create his signature style of peinture raclée

Angeliki Kim Perfetti: So, Sassan, why Doha?

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar: Simple. It was a real coup de cœur for us. I decided to choose Doha and Qatar as a second home — which has become our first home for the time being, as my son goes to school here now. Many of my collectors in Europe, the UK, and the States didn’t get it: “From Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to Doha!” And I’m like, “No, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Doha.”

I met many key people in the contemporary art, cultural, and museum scenes here. There is a lot of excitement, energy, and exciting initiatives set in place for the upcoming years. Opening an atelier here in Doha felt like the right thing to do.

AKP: Always ahead of the curve!

SB-B: Haha! It seems I was. I’m just saying, honestly, I’m very early here in Doha. And that’s what I love about it. When I came here I started meeting interesting people, collectors, and key figures in the cultural scene, as well as the very few gallerists present. It’s literally the beginning and I was like, “I need to be there.”

Detail from Energy in Nature, by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

I’m always attracted to visionary communities in the arts and culture. It made sense, and it was an organic process. I made great friends and was embraced by the cultural community. I am basically the first international artist who moved to Doha by himself. I just came because I love the place—Doha is a hidden treasure.

What came next was the creation of a bridge between my practice in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, what the south of France has always represented in contemporary arts, and the state of Qatar.

Read more: Inside the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort

AKP: What was it about Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat that had resonated with you?

SB-B: When I moved to Saint-Jean from London 15 years ago, people were asking me why I moved. The question was about the geographical journey, but the answer was about my journey as a human being and my creative world. It’s very straightforward: the move was about nature, energy, light, and the environment, and that’s why I love Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar, in the midst of his career within the burgeoning art scene in Qatar

In the region from Arles and St-Paul to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and Aix-en-Provence, you can see the tracks of great artists. Funnily enough, it was Darius who was one of the first people to call it; he said that Sassan’s work resembles a melted Monet and Paul Signac. I was really pulled in by the south of France already being my home. There I continued to study nature, the light, and I started painting energy.

AKP: When did your creative journey start, and what brought about your signature style?

SB-B: I started at the age of four with my father, who taught me how to paint. We lived together on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris, and he would sit me by the window to paint the views. Our weekly museum visits—seeing works by Monet, Signac, Van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard and others—planted seeds that later affected my work without me realising it.

I always had a close relationship with colours found in nature, how their shades would change under different light was a fascinating concept for me as a child. It’s probably why I spent years trying to recreate this effect on my living paintings. I was in Iran between the ages of eight and 18, and was mesmerised by the Persian touch and their attention to detail when creating art. Trying mosaic, mirror works and Ghalamkari entered me into a different world. It seems the mixing of these two creative worlds, alongside my vision of humanity and my life experience brought forth my signature style.

Energy in Spring, by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

AKP: What is your working practice? What is your starting point and how does it evolve?

SB-B: Nobody sees how I paint; not even my wife has properly seen how I create my works, which I think is a bit weird. Once I start painting I’m in my space and I do not like to be disturbed, I don’t like to have an external energy enter my bubble.

My work is not planned, there are no sketches, there is no pre-planning in any way. My painting process is literally the release of the emotions I have at a particular moment. It can start with something rather darker, and when the work is finished, the darkness is transformed into a positive tangible experience on the surface of the canvas.

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As I keep on working, layer by layer, all the previous layers are covered, which gradually transforms the darkness into something positive and beautiful to look at – and on this I’m quoting my audience and my collectors.

I work predominantly with natural pigments and various natural media, so my process has become some sort of an alchemy at this stage. I usually let go of my tools when I see that the piece actually transfers that energy I’m looking for, and it needs to be poignant, so you can have a chemical reaction in your brain, leading you to think differently about life and humanity.

The artist at his studio in Doha with his wife Maria, an interiors entrepreneur, and son

AKP: And you need to be alone for this?

SB-B: One of my collectors, a very close friend, saw me paint one time, and it was a beautiful journey for both of us. As a contemporary artist with an old-school soul, I do like to sit down with some of my close collectors and have a vintage bottle of red, discuss art and life and everything in between. And one day I was in the mood, and I started painting in front of him – and this has happened one time only – so he was just sitting there watching me, and at the end he said, “Now I understand how you transform the darkness into something positive in your work and life!”.

AKP: You are in Qatar at a time that is so exciting. How did your move first come about?

SB-B: I came to Qatar in December 2023. And a year and a half later people ask me, “Sassan, how did you do this? You’re such a visionary guy.” And I’m like, “What are you talking about?” I just followed my gut feeling, and I’m very transparent about it. I really saw something great about the art and cultural scene, as well as the immense potential in an upcoming ecosystem.

We were flying back from the Maldives to Nice to go to Cap-Ferrat and we always had stopovers in Doha. We decided this one time to stay in Doha for a week and explore the city. That was in November 2023. So we explored everywhere and we went to a place called the Inland Sea, where the desert meets the sea. It’s beautiful.

‘My process has become some sort of an alchemy at this stage’ – Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

I remember laying down watching the stars in the sky in the evening. And I had this feeling of having been there already. I felt very rooted, this calmness took over my whole being in a way that was familiar. So I just went with that. I thought, “I really feel good here.” I don’t know if it was the beauty of that place, if it was looking at the reflection of the moon and the stars on the sea, or the energy present. Something made me feel at ease. Two months later, we were here.

AKP: It had to be done.

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SB-B: It just pulled me in. There is this sense of calmness here, which is hard to explain. You have to be here to feel it. It allows you to simply live and be, which in turn had an impact on my life and practice. The energy of this place took me back to my childhood and allowed me to deal with so much buried trauma. It freed me from so much weight I was carrying, and changed my outlook on life. The Qataris are wonderful people, very kind, respectful, and bon vivant. Culture is very important to them, and I appreciate the many friendships I have made here.

AKP: How has it developed in your work?

‘Creation isn’t a one-time act but an eternal performance, and every ending seeds a new beginning’ – Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

SB-B: I am a workaholic, so in summer I like to disappear and usually end up on an island with my wife and son, and I just meditate. So we were in the Maldives. After meditating, I pick up my sketchbook, creating ideas, not drawing but writing. When I have an idea, I write it and I keep developing that idea, and the latest is a new body of works called Heartbeats.

Channelling earth’s energy to bloom to its full potential, a flower is a symbol in Heartbeats, marking key moments in our lives, whether towards evolution and love, or destruction and darkness. Flowers embody human principles of growth, attraction, and renewal, and can teach us to awaken to our inner light and root in Earth’s energy. By pursuing truth and vitality, we each contribute to a collective blossoming—a human evolution marked by resilience, beauty, and unity.

Under the guiding sun, humanity transforms into a garden, where every flower’s growth illuminates the path to a vital, truthful, interconnected future. Representing hope and interconnectedness, the flowers on the canvas symbolise resilience, encouraging humans to act with integrity even in challenging circumstances.

It is not only what we do, but its source, whose metaphysical action determines the value of all human action with every heartbeat. There is a dance of creation implying rhythm: the ebb and flow of the seasons, the pulse of heartbeats, the oscillation between destruction and renewal. In this view, creation isn’t a one-time act but an eternal performance, and every ending seeds a new beginning.

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar for the cover of LUX’s Winter 2025/26 issue, designing our logo in his signature style

Heartbeats comes from the time I spent as a young teenager in the vast wild tulip fields of the Alborz mountains, north of Tehran. I always compared my life to these tulip fields, growing back each season no matter how harsh the circumstances. In my eyes, these wild tulips, blooming despite adversity, paralleled human resilience in facing life’s challenges. Perhaps our primary responsibility is to evolve as beings who are conduits for the supreme creative power of the universe, similarly to flowers.

AKP: What are your thoughts on Art Basel Qatar and art in the wider region?

SB-B: I believe they have chosen the best place for such a fair in the region. I think there is a nice synergy. Holding the fair at M7 and at the Doha Design District makes sense, and I’m looking forward to experiencing the fair in Doha. It’s surely a new page in the contemporary and modern art story of Qatar.

sassanbehnambakhtiar.com

Interview by Angeliki Kim Perfetti

Photographs by Ben Cope

Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort, with its 10 acres of gardens

At Blue Bay Marcel Ravin in Monte Carlo, chef Ravin’s poetic Martinique-meets-Mediterranean cuisine has been rewarded with two Michelin stars – and transformed the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort into one of the principality’s most exciting culinary destinations. When Ravin invited three-Michelin-starred French chef Anne-Sophie Pic to a special collaboration at his restaurant within a restaurant, the result was culinary magic

LUX: Marcel, how was your experience of the “four-hands” dinner, where you worked with chef Anne-Sophie Pic?

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Marcel Ravin: Wonderfully good! Chef Anne-Sophie Pic has everything you look for in a chef. The camaraderie, the sense of sharing and the respect for the teams made this dinner a moment suspended in time.

Chefs Anne-Sophie Pic and Marcel Ravin, creating a four-hands dinner at Blue Bay Marcel Ravin

LUX: What else would you love to do and achieve at Blue Bay, Marcel Ravin?

MR: I would like to finalise the concept of the restaurant within the restaurant, La Table de Marcel. This is a place of expression with just eight seats, where we will offer an exceptional gastronomic experience to privileged guests, combining culinary art and culture. The goal: to make it a Michelin-starred restaurant itself.

LUX: Have your ideas for your cuisine changed over the years?

MR: It is important for anyone with a passion to maximise the possibilities of the knowledge they have acquired. For me, it’s an eternal renewal based on research at the cutting edge of creativity.

The two chefs at work together for the event, which was part of the Monte-Carlo Festival des Étoiles 2025

A Stay at the Bay

We all know that Monte Carlo is a glamorous destination—perhaps for a bit of showing off your Graff diamonds, drifting around in your Ferrari and being seen in the right places at the right times. But for beach and cuisine, it may not have been top of your list of considerations.

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Well, reconsider. Driven by a new generation living and staying there, and by investment from the principality, it is now becoming a prime destination for both.

The hotel’s lagoon area looks out to sea, away from the crowds

Monaco now hosts frequent “four hands” dinners, where multi–Michelin-starred chefs collaborate to create spectacular evenings in the principality’s new array of luxury restaurants. Many of the dinners are led by the two-Michelin-starred chef Marcel Ravin, who runs the Blue Bay restaurant and oversees everything culinary at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort.

Whether you go for one of the special collaborative events or for dinner at Blue Bay, it is spectacular. The terrace features well-spaced tables looking out to sea with a view of the mountains behind. Ravin’s cuisine blends Creole and Mediterranean influences with creativity and panache. Colours and flavours are natural, vibrant and entirely original, as in signature dishes such as Oeuf Monte-Carlo, with truffle, cassava and passion fruit.

A lunch table with a view at Las Brisas, a summer restaurant at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort

The Monte-Carlo Bay is a resort within a resort: by day, stroll along the terrace underneath Blue Bay and you come across its huge, organically shaped pool, which wraps around a rock garden and is lined with white sand. All you need do is settle down on a lounger and choose a view of the pool in one direction or the sea in the other.

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Lunch, meanwhile, is just around the corner—at Las Brisas, perhaps the best setting in Monte Carlo. It sits right by the water’s edge with views of the Mediterranean and the mountains. Sip some Perrier-Jouët Blanc de Blancs champagne—an excellent choice, with lightness and florality—and enjoy simple, beautifully crafted Mediterranean cuisine with a fitting blue vibe, given you are surrounded by sea on three sides. Make sure you get a table right by the water.

On our final night, we dined at Jondal à La Vigie, a takeover of a spot inside a pine forest on the next peninsula over, on the other side of the bay. It took 10 minutes to walk there, but if it’s too hot, it’s just a two-minute car transfer. This cuisine, curated by the famous Ibiza spot, is different again, blending Spanish and trans-Mediterranean influences. We strongly recommend pairing the food with the excellent white Burgundy available by the glass. The vibe is super relaxed, without the drumming music you get in so many Monaco places.

And the beach? There’s the beach club exactly between the two, plus the massive resort pool at the Monte-Carlo Bay. You don’t need to venture into “town” at all for a gastro sunshine break next summer. And it’s all just 40 minutes from Nice International Airport.

montecarlosbm.com

A brain scan at Preventicum: is it a work of art, is it a 3D brain scan – or is it both?

Whether you’re 25 or 65, how can you be sure your body isn’t going to deliver you a health shock in the near future? Using the latest technology and analysis, you really can discover any upcoming bumps in life’s road – and take action to avoid them. LUX spends a seamlessly organised day at Preventicum, a leading clinic in London, to find out how it works

One hears the stories, whether they involve friends, family or even ourselves. Someone is in the best of health and then suddenly, from nowhere, they suffer a catastrophic health event – a life-changing condition such as a heart attack or stroke or, even worse, a life-ending condition. Or they discover they have a nasty form of cancer that hadn’t been spotted in time.

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It can happen to young people, old people, fit people, unfit people, fat people, thin people—anyone. It’s part of life’s gruesome game of roulette. And we can’t do a thing about it, right?

Wrong. That would be thinking rooted in the 20th century. And while the past few decades may not have brought the firework-studied breakthroughs in medicine that we saw in previous eras, such as the discovery of penicillin or the first heart transplant, they have, quietly but highly effectively, brought major advances in preventative medicine.

The scan in action using Preventicum’s state-of-the-art technology

However, there is a lack of precision around the definition of preventative medicine, which means people can sometimes be misled. Some practitioners might describe changing your eating habits, or having superficial checkups as required by a health insurer, as preventative. But these are scratching the surface.

To find out how preventative medicine should work, we paid a visit to Preventicum. This is a discreet clinic in central London that sets itself out as a leader in its field and is located in a standalone building, modern and full of interesting art (we had to note).

On the day, we arrived bright and early and were ushered into a well-appointed suite that would be ours for the day. Ahead of our blood tests, we were under instructions not to eat anything, but were assured that copious snacks and drinks would be served later on.

Dr Ying-Young Hui, Preventicum’s Medical Director, in consultation with a client

There followed a series of MRI scans, visual skin checks, ultrasounds and other inspections—nothing painful or invasive. In fact, the whole day was less invasive than a dental appointment. We had opted for the Optimal Assessment, which involved MRI scans for the brain, heart, abdomen and pelvis as well as BrainKey, Oxygenation-Sensitive Cardiac MRI (OS-CMR) and a musculoskeletal region. It also included more than 50 blood tests checking for markers related to organ function, inflammation, cardiovascular risk, hormonal balance and nutritional status. We also had a PLAC blood test to measure for inflammation in the blood vessels.

Read more: Head to Baku Art Weekend for a unique cultural celebration

The brain scan was converted into a 3D plan of the brain, giving a pretty thorough analysis of risk factors there. No MRI is failsafe, but it’s like having a very good examination of your car without actually taking the engine apart (a doctor friend’s analogy that we like).

A radiologist consultation at Preventicum

The most impressive thing about Preventicum was the way everything was joined together efficiently in one place, and then interpreted by one of Preventicum’s expert team of doctors with the prior input of other specialists. It made having the most thorough body tests you can imagine more like a day at a spa. Perhaps what prevents (if you will excuse the pun) more people from doing this is nothing other than the inconvenience that would otherwise be incurred of having to rattle in and out of various medical places at various times and trying to get the results to all join up. That would be irritating enough for anyone with medical knowledge, but pretty daunting for those outside the field, who would have to explain to one specialist exactly what their results were with another specialist and the conversations they had had, and so on.

Try doing this independently and it will feel as if you have spent days doing the equivalent of speaking to a call centre and filling them in each time on the last call you had. Plus all the waiting times. At Preventicum, not only does everything happen in one day, everyone knows exactly who you are, what you are here for and ushers you seamlessly from consultations to tests.

And what about the scans, examinations and inspections? Well, everyone has a different tolerance of these things. Armed with the knowledge that MRI scans are not remotely harmful—they involve no radiation and, unlike x-rays or CT scans, you could spend every day of your life in an MRI scanner and emerge feeling perhaps a little bit as if you had been in a permanent loop of heavy-metal concerts, but no more than that—we hunkered down and had a good time listening to music through the headphones. The most enjoyable part was seeing our brain scans, which looked so much like artwork that we requested to reproduce one for this article.

An MRI scanner at Preventicum, where they have state-of-the-art technology

In all seriousness, we were being given inspections that between them would pick up pretty much anything that could cause us to have one of those catastrophic events now or in the future. Some people might say they would rather not know—which frankly is irresponsible to both yourself and your loved ones. Because with medicine these days, if you do know, then with the majority of conditions that can be picked up with a thorough preventative medicine check like this, you can do something about it, either treating the condition so that it avoids long-term harm, or potentially saving your own life from a dramatic event that will now not happen. And if you get the all-clear, well that’s all good too, no? For the price of a fairly middling holiday in the Maldives, we think it’s a sacrifice worth making — and most LUX readers won’t even need to sacrifice the Maldives trip for a day at Preventicum.

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The day ends, after a relaxing meal (ordered previously) in your room, with a conversation with your extremely smart and affable Preventicum doctor, with whom you will stay in touch for follow-ups as required.

Would we do it again? Hell, yes. Most people of wealth spend more on, say, updating their whisky collection or maintaining one of their cars each year than it costs to spend one well-organised day here, either finding out that you are fit for the next few years or discovering what’s wrong and what to do about it. And it’s all joined up.

preventicum.co.uk