One of the world’s top collectors Sheikh Al-Thani dies suddenly, aged 48

Qatar’s former minister of culture’s spending spree shook up the art world before it came to abrupt end

By Georgina Adam and Cristina Ruiz. Web only
Published online: 10 November 2014

Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al-Thani

Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al-Thani of Qatar, at one time the biggest art collector in the world, died at his home in London on Sunday, aged 48. The news was announced at a museums conference in Doha, earlier today, 10 November. The cause of his death has not been announced, although it is believed to have been from natural causes.

Sheikh Al-Thani, a distant cousin of the current Emir, served as Qatar’s minister of culture from 1997 until 2005 and oversaw an ambitious museum building programme for the oil and gas-rich Gulf state.

He also built a massive collections of antiquities, photography, Chinese and Islamic art (many of his purchases in this field are now on display in the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha). He also collected furniture, vintage cars, natural history, jewellery, even bicycles, but it was sometimes unclear if the collections he had assembled belonged to him or to Qatar. In 2005 he was dismissed and placed briefly under house arrest while some of his purchases were investigated. He returned to the market a short time later, buying for his own collections in various fields including Chinese art and coins.

In 2012, a High Court judge in London froze $15m worth of his assets as part of a dispute over unpaid bills to auction houses. The numismatic auctioneers Baldwin’s, Dmitry Markov and M&M; Numismatics, accused him of defaulting on bids for items from the Prospero Collection, a cache of Greek coins.