See also
Oliver Hoare Limited of London helped Sheikh Saud embezzle 16 Million
for more on the web of fraud and deceit in the Sheikh Saud Scandal
RugNotes: Thursday, March 31, 2005: "The Art Newspaper -- Michael Franses of Hali Speaks out in the Sheikh Saud Scandal
The Art Newspaper -- News: "Collecting on the grandest scale
From tiny cameos to complete dinosaur skeletons, Sheikh Saud has bought voraciously for the last decade—often paying disproportionate prices
By Georgina Adam
LONDON. News of the dismissal of Sheikh Saud from his position as chairman of Qatar’s National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage, and his subsequent arrest, has sent shockwaves through the art market.
For the last eight years, the Sheikh has been the biggest collector in the world, buying both for himself and for five museums under construction in Qatar. Until a few months ago, when he suddenly scaled down his buying, his purchases were flooding into storehouses in Al-Wabra, his family estate near the Qatari capital Doha as well into other storage facilities in the city. “Goods were arriving by the crateload,” says a source who spent four days working on the collection at Al-Wabra. Its storerooms were packed with acquisitions: rows of Islamic mosque lamps, hundreds of vintage bicycles, thousands of botanical illustrations, rooms full of books.
Just as breathtaking was the scope of Sheikh Saud’s buying. He was active in a varied range of fields and he would occasionally buy exceptional pieces that did not fit with the main collections he was building, such as his purchase, in 2003, of the rediscovered Mantuan roundel. In fact, the only field in which he did not appear to buy much was painting, although the Qatar National Library will exhibit a collection of Orientalist pictures.
While Sheikh Saud rarely bid openly at auction, his impact on some markets, particularly photography, Islamic art and Egyptian antiquities soon led to him being identified as the buyer of any high-priced lot. Working through dealers, he also acquired entire collections, for example the Bokelberg collection of photographs, bought for a rumoured $12 to 15 million. Sometimes, almost on impulse he would start collections of specific objects, for example many carpets bought with the help of the dealer Michael Franses.
Mr Franses told The Art Newspaper last year that Sheikh Saud had asked him for a list of the greatest carpets in private collections. The sheikh then travelled to visit each owner to try and buy their carpets. The result is that the carpets and textiles, acquired for the future Museum of Islamic Art are certain to be among the best in the world.
Sheikh Saud’s buying at auction has puzzled the art world. He has been prepared to pay well over estimate if necessary, spending sometimes disproportionate amounts of money to secure items he really wanted.
Inevitably the Sheikh has been eagerly courted by anyone with art to sell. “Some dealers would almost throw themselves at the Sheikh, they were so desperate to get his attention”, one source told The Art Newspaper. He seems to have favoured a small number of dealers who, according to others, “ring-fenced” the sheikh to prevent others from approaching him. The same source told The Art Newspaper that he paid a £2,500 commission for a first introduction.
Bought and sold by the sheikh
Constable-Maxwell cage-cup, third century AD.
Sold for £2.6 million at Bonhams, London in 2004
The sale and re-sale of the Constable-Maxwell cage cup has intrigued the art world. This remarkable diatretum or carved glass cage cup, with its perforated collar and delicate lattice of concentric rings, is the best preserved and most complete example of a rare type of luxury Roman artefact from the third century AD, very few of which have survived. Neither its exact use nor its place of manufacture are known, but it is believed to originate in the eastern Mediterranean and to have originally been translucent; it may have been used as a hanging lamp.
The cup was sold by the Constable-Maxwell family in 1979 for the then record price of £520,000, passing into the British Rail Pension Fund. In 1997 the cup was sold again at Sotheby’s for just over £2.3 million. At the time of the sale, the buyer was rumoured to have been Sheikh Saud al-Thani. In March 2004, this newspaper’s Art Market editor, Georgina Adam, saw the cup in a glass case in a warehouse at Al-Wabra, the Al-Thani family estate outside the Qatari capital Doha. She was there for an exclusive interview with Sheikh Saud published in April 2004 (www.theartnewspaper.com).
Four months later the cup appeared for sale once again, this time at Bonhams on 14 July 2004. It was presumably consigned by Sheikh Saud along with an eclectic assortment of 25 other glass and pre-Columbian gold objects, a number of which were also ex Constable-Maxwell and British Rail Pension fund pieces, and all of which had passed through either Sotheby’s or Christie’s in the late 1990s.
The Bonham’s auction made nearly £6 million. The cage-cup was sold for over £2.6 million, a record for a glass object at auction, and it was bought by an anonymous telephone bidder, one of only a handful of major buyers in the sale. Exactly why the Sheikh sold the cup along with numerous other lots at the Bonham’s sale is not entirely clear
Lucian Harris
Jade wine flask, Mughal, 17th century, from the Clive treasure. Bought for £2.91 million at Christie’s London in 2004
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, Temple of Olympian Zeus, 1842, bought for £565,250 at Christie’s in 2003. The highest price ever paid for a photograph
The Winter Egg, Fabergé, bought for $9.57 million at Christie’s New York in April 2002. Highest price for a Fabergé egg
Cut and voided silk velvet, Ottoman Turkey, 17th century. Bought privately
Boutet de Monvel, Portrait of the Maharajah of Indore, bought privately
A plate from Audubon’s Birds of America, complete set bought for $8.8 million at Christie’s in 2000. Highest price for a copy of the Birds
Cameo of Shah Jahan, bought for £574,250 at Bonhams, London in 2003
Iranian pottery tile, 17th century. Bought for £94,850 (est. £1,000/1,500) at Christie’s London in 2004
Emerald gold and enamel cup, Mughal, 17th century, bought for £1.79 million at Sotheby’s London in 2003
The Jenkins Venus, a Roman marble statue, bought for £7.93 million at Christie’s in London in 2002. Highest price ever paid for any antiquity""
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