This article was written and contributed by Simon Lazarus who writes for a number of national and international publications.
They say time waits for no man which is certainly true for one of the richest men in the world. According to recent reports, a member of the Qatari royal elite has donated the most expensive timepiece in the world to Sotheby’s in London.
Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Bin Ali al-Thani who is one of the cousins to the actual ruler of Qatar has offered a number of items in order to repay debts he owed to the world famous auctioneers.
This included a wealth of exclusive diamond jewellery, ethnic art and most importantly a handful of glorious Patek Philippe Swiss made watches.
Filed documents by the New York Department of State showed 240 separate items that were to be sold off at auction. And the value of this collection – a cool $83 million.
Henry Graves Supercomplication
One of the featured items is the Henry Graves Supercomplication, which an unknown bidder purchased at Sotheby’s in 1999 for more than US$10m.
Filed documents from Sotheby’s actually reveal that Al-Thani is the proud owner of the Graves Supercomplication. Set your faces to stunned and admire this gorgeous feat of haute horology.
Highlights to this model include a star chart portraying significant changes to the Manhattan skyline at night as well as a minute recorder which chimes to the same iconic Big Ben tune that sits proudly in the Palace of Westminster.
Meanwhile Al-Thani has been making the headlines for all the wrong reasons recently thanks to two separate lawsuits in as many months.
The first was allegedly failing to find nearly US$20m for a set of coins from Ancient Greece while he is also believed to have not paid for several items from 11 auction houses over an 18 month period.
The dealers’ QC, Jeffrey Gruder, likened Sheikh Saud to an ‘inveterate gambler’ who could not stop himself spending millions on objects of his desire before walking away from his obligations.
‘He bids, wins and then doesn’t pay. One can only conclude that this is a person acting dishonourably and disreputably. He is bidding when he knows he’s not going to be able to pay,’ the barrister claimed.
Among this is the whopping $42 million he owed directly to Sotheby’s. Michael Plummer, former CFO at Christie’s declared in the Independent: “It’s not unheard of in the auction business, when clients run into cash problems, for auction houses to take property in lieu of payment.”
