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In one sense, it’s a very good time to be an artist. There’s a lot of money out there, collector and corporate, to fund new work. Companies are using art to get publicity for their business ventures; the overwhelming memory of Art Basel 07 is one of corporate logos, hard-sell pitches and luxury branding.

Talk about positioning: Thirtysomething Sheikh Majed Al Sabah went shopping at the upstart Pulse art fair and two days later announced a huge Dubai real-estate development, Villa Moda, that includes an art gallery. The sheikh, a luxury retailer and artist himself, released a statement that the Dubai complex would be “a new concept in retail therapy.�

By week’s end, what was legit and what wasn’t had blurred beyond recognition. One of the better artworks in the city was Grammy-winning musician Henri Scars Struck’s lush, complex 24-hour “sound installation,� which played crickets and campfires at midnight and East European cafés at dinnertime. Where was it? In the elevator of the Le Meridien hotel. Says the artist: “I wanted to surprise people.� Penthouse, please. —Alexandra Peers