The biggest art collector, Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar, has been arrested and is now under investigation for alleged misuse of public funds.The 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 - 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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
"Sheikh Saud is the victim of a palace plot", said a dealer who has sold to the Sheikh.
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.
March 2005
