When Roman Abramovich, the Russian metals and minerals tycoon, and Sheikh Saud al-Thani, from the Qatari royal family, both showed up this month at the Basel art fair, their presence caused a stir but no surprise. The commodities market and the art market have grown unlikely links.

The huge wealth from oil and mining in the Middle East and Russia is flowing into fine art, with a rush of new buyers entering a market that was already booming. Mr Abramovich was the buyer of two of the three most expensive paintings sold at the big May sales in New York, according to The Art Newspaper – paying $86m (£43m, €55m) for Francis Bacon’s “Triptych, 1976” and $34m for Lucian Freud’s “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping”.