World’s biggest art collector arrested in Qatar
Sheikh Saud Al-Thani, cousin of the Emir of Qatar, is being investigated for
alleged misuse of public funds
Photographs and linked articles:
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11745
By Georgina Adam
LONDON. The Art Newspaper can reveal that the world’s biggest art collector,
Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar, has been arrested and is now under
investigation for alleged misuse of public funds.
The Art Newspaper understands that Sheikh Saud, who is a second cousin of
the ruling Emir of Qatar, is currently under house arrest in the Qatari
capital Doha. He was detained at the end of February.
As Chairman of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage (NCCAH),
Sheikh Saud, 38, has been responsible for the purchase of art on behalf of
the Emir for the last eight years. His acquisitions are intended to go on
display in five museums currently under construction in Doha as part of an
ambitious plan to transform the tiny Gulf State into a major cultural
centre. During this period, Sheikh Saud has also purchased art for his own
personal collection.
Qatar, with its vast reserves of oil and gas, is one of the richest
countries in the Arab region. Consequently Sheikh Saud’s budget for the
purchase of art has appeared to be almost limitless. He has been prepared to
pay colossal sums for acquisitions in several fields from Islamic art and
Egyptian antiquities to Fabergé objects, photography, art deco furniture,
natural history specimens and books, vintage cars, classical sculptures, and
objets d’art, to name just a few. Working through European dealers, he has
bought entire collections outright.
The Sheikh’s willingness to spend disproportionate amounts of money for
certain objects has astonished the art world. At a sale of Islamic art at
Christie’s in London last April The Art Newspaper identified an agent
working for Sheikh Saud as the buyer of a Mughal agate and garnet fly-whisk
handle formerly belonging to Clive of India for £901,250, 113 times its high
estimate of £8,000. At the same sale we also identified the Sheikh as the
buyer of two unusual Safavid tiles, both with low estimates of only £1,000,
for £31,070 and £94,850 respectively. Sheikh Saud also purchased numerous
lots at Sotheby’s and Bonham’s in that week’s Islamic sales.
The Art Newspaper identified several agents bidding for Sheikh Saud at all
these auctions. We understand that on one occasion the Sheikh appeared to be
bidding against another potential buyer with the same surname.
Last month, dealers in London and Paris who have sold art to Sheikh Saud
received a fax, dated 16 February, from the NCCAH in Qatar. It states:
“Sheikh Saud Mohammed Al-Thani is no longer the Chairman of the National
Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage of the State of Qatar. Accordingly,
he no longer has the authority to engage or make commitments on [its]
behalf.”
“Please update your records and ensure that this advice is disseminated to
all concerned parties with[in] your organisation. The NCCAH will not be held
responsible for any commitments made by Sheikh Saud Mohammed Al-Thani after
this advice has been issued.”
The statement is signed by the NCCAH’s new chairman, Dr Mohammed Abdulraheem
Kafoud, a former education minister.
Last week, The Art Newspaper received a letter from the NCCAH informing us
of the nomination of Dr Kafoud as the new president of the NCCAH. The brief
statement does not mention Sheikh Saud. The Art Newspaper was unable to
reach Dr Kafoud for comment.
Sheikh Saud’s London office, the Islamic Art Society, was closed on 7
February. It has now gone into voluntary liquidation.
According to reports published in Qatari newspapers, the Qatari Audit Bureau
is now investigating a “serious misuse and misappropriation of public
funds.” The Arabic language Al Sharq reported that a “senior government
body” has spent one billion Qatari Riyals ($275 million) on one of its
activities. One official was under preventative detention and two other
people involved are out of the country, the newspaper said. An article in
the English language Gulf Times named this body as the NCCAH.
Speaking to The Art Newspaper on condition of anonymity, one dealer who has
worked with the Sheikh said that the NCCAH had asked for copies of all
invoices he had ever sent to Sheikh Saud.
While several curators working for the Sheikh in Qatar did not answer their
telephones or reply to emails, Dr Oliver Watson, chief curator of the Museum
of Islamic Art (MIA), told The Art Newspaper that “the building projects are
going ahead as planned.” He would not comment on the removal of Sheikh Saud,
however, he has resigned and is shortly to become the new Keeper of Eastern
Art at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Competing with Britain
The Sheikh’s determination to purchase the very best objects for the new
Qatari museums has, on occasions, set him on a collision course with
Britain.
In June 2002, the Sheikh bought the so-called Jenkins Venus, a Roman marble
statue from Newby Hall, Yorkshire, for £7,926,650 at Christie’s in
London—the highest price ever paid at auction for any antiquity. The work
had stood in the sculpture gallery at Newby Hall in a niche designed for it
by the architect Robert Adam.
The British government deferred an export licence and “starred” the
sculpture to emphasise its importance but no UK buyer was able to raise the
recommended price and the statue was eventually granted an export licence
and duly taken to Qatar.
In April 2004, Sheikh Saud bought the Clive of India treasure, a jewelled
Mughal jade flask studded with rubies and emeralds, for £3 million at a
Christie’s sale. This had been on show at the V&A since 1963 until it was
put up for auction by the Clive family.
Following the sale the British government once again deferred an export
licence and the V&A launched a campaign to raise matching funds. The
institution secured a £400,000 grant from the National Art Collections Fund
and was preparing to submit an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund when
the Sheikh informed the Export Reviewing Committee that he was withdrawing
his request for an export licence. This means that the Sheikh would have had
to keep the flask in the UK. The incident led to concerns that the UK
licensing system is not working and needs to be reformed.
Some of the Sheikh’s purchases may have upset members of his ruling Al-Thani
family, particularly the Jenkins Venus, which is a sensual, female nude. “My
family thinks I am mad [because of my art purchases],” Sheikh Saud admitted
to The Art Newspaper during an exclusive interview last year at his family
estate outside Doha.
As well as spending vast sums of money on art, Sheikh Saud has been the
driving force behind the ambitious museum building programme. It was the
Sheikh who persuaded leading international architects such as Santiago
Calatrava and Arata Isozaki to design museums in Qatar. He even managed to
convince the retired Chinese American architect I.M. Pei to embark on a
final project, the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha.
A palace coup?
While observers of the art market have long been astonished and somewhat
puzzled by the huge prices Sheikh Saud has been prepared to pay at auction,
it is possible that the investigation into his spending may amount to no
more than a palace coup. Power struggles are common in this part of the
world and Sheikh Saud has been sidelined before. His spending is known to
have been deeply disapproved of in some Qatari circles.
“I believe Sheikh Saud is the victim of a palace plot,” said a dealer who
has sold to the Sheikh. “Sheikh Saud has the energy and resources to drive
all these museum projects forward, he has an amazing eye and great energy,
and I can’t see who else can replace him. What he has achieved in eight
years is extraordinary. I don’t think all the projects can go ahead now,
without him.”
One small indication that the new NCCAH team will continue the projects
spearheaded by the Sheikh comes from the Louvre Museum in Paris. The
institution has confirmed that an exhibition, scheduled for 2006, of 150
Islamic works to be sent on loan from the MIA collection in Qatar, will go
ahead as planned. It will be seen in Paris both at the Louvre and the Guimet
Museum.
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11745
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