Hotels That Bring New Meaning To The Term 'Hotel Art'

Whether it's a masterpiece in the lobby or a sculpture in the hallways, an artistic surprise awaits at every nook and cranny of these hotels. More than just a place to spend the night, each property houses a museum-worthy art collection that brings new meaning to the term “hotel art”, discovers Hashirin Nurin Hashimi.

- Hashirin Nurin Hashimi

THE SCOTTISH HERITAGE HOME

WHERE The Fife Arms, Braemar, Scotland

ART COLLECTION Seasoned collectors know that it takes time to build a blue-chip art collection. So it is no mean feat that The Fife Arms owners, Iwan and Manuela Wirth (pictured right), took three years to restore this 19th-century Victorian coaching inn into a 46-bedroom boutique hotel—which opened last December—and fill it with more than 14,000 works of art. Considering the Swiss couple is behind leading global gallery Hauser & Wirth, you know that they were in their element, despite this being the first property of its kind in their nascent hospitality portfolio. For the hotel’s interiors, British designer Russell Sage took inspiration from local history and landscape, as evinced by the bespoke tartan covering the walls and even taxidermy (above left), juxtaposed with contemporary art that has been seamlessly integrated into space—as you would expect in a private home. Masterpieces such as Pablo Picasso’s Mousquetaire Assis and Lucien Freud’s Child Portrait (Annie) (opposite) take centre stage in the drawing room and lobby, respectively, alongside site-specific commissions such as Chinese artist Zhang Enli’s Ancient Quartz ceiling fresco (above left) that emulate the cross-section of Scottish agates in their colour and texture, and American artist Richard Jackson’s Red Deer Chandelier (above right), crafted of intertwined glass antlers, bathing the hotel’s central staircase in neon lights.

CULTURAL CONNECTION One of the world’s most famous highland games, the Braemar Gathering takes place annually on the first Saturday in September and is attended by Queen Elizabeth II. Stay the weekend to soak in the spectacle.

A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM