On January 4, 2012 the Prospero Collection was sold in New York. It was a great auction! For decades the material had been stored away untouched. With wit and taste the collector had acquired the coins from the most prominent coin dealers of his time. The coin market, hence, went haywire, the prices realised were simply exorbitant. The biggest buyer was, once more, sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Thani.

Eleven months later, though, things look different. The organisers of the auction are still waiting for their money. Eventually, the issue has gone to court.

Reports of the British press show that the coin dealers’ barrister does not mince words. He called the defendant, after all cousin of the ruling emir of Qatar, a ‘serial defaulter’ claiming that he has run up debts with other auction houses too – reportedly 4.3 million pounds with Bonham and 26 million pounds with Sotheby. ‘He is bidding when he knows he’s not going to be able to pay. Perhaps in a perverse way he enjoys the process of bidding,’ barrister Jeffrey Gruder states according to a Telegraph article.

On October 9, 2012 the British assets of sheikh Al-Thani were reportedly frozen. However, the creditors fear the Qatari citizen might have withdrawn to Doha in order to not be in their reach. It will not appease them to hear Mr Al-Thani’s barrister describing his client’s behaviour as ‘not unusual’ for men in the sheik’s position who prefer to return to the Middle East when the cold season starts. According to the sheik’s barrister his client tried indeed to settle his debts and only due to ‘timing issues’ he was not yet able to pay.

‘He is a very well-known and internationally regarded art collector,’ said Mr Al Thani’s barrister Stephen Rubin. At the same time he denied the auctioneers’ right of suing his client since they merely organised the sale of the coins on behalf of an unidentified client of Baldwin. In addition they still keep the coins and, as Mr Rubin said, they are free to find a buyer for them if they wish to.
However, the barrister did not query whether this buyer would ever pay the same price the sheik was willing to pay at the sale.

Qatari sheikh who spent more than £1billion on his art collection is accused of leaving 'extraordinary trail' of unpaid debt around world's top auction houses

Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Thani, 45, accused of bidding $20m for ancient Greek coins but not paying up
'He bids, wins and then doesn’t pay. He is bidding when he knows he’s not going to be able to pay,' dealers' QC says
Sheikh denies 'obviously wrong' lawsuit brought against him, High Court hears
A sheikh who has spent more than £1billion on his art collection has denied accusations of being a 'serial defaulter' and amassing a pile of unpaid debts with some of the world’s top auction houses.

Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Thani - 'reputedly the world’s largest collector of objets d’art'- is being sued by dealers who say he has dishonoured a pledge to pay $19.7 million for a collection of ancient Greek coins sold at auction in New York in January.

Saud, 45, 'purchased nearly $20 million worth of coins from the Prospero Collection', regarded as the finest assortment of Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greek coins ever assembled, the High Court was told.

Although the dealers are still holding the coins they are insisting that the sheikh should be bound by his bid at auction.

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.

'Perhaps in a perverse way he enjoys the process of bidding. If one wants to be an amateur psychiatrist, maybe he is like an inveterate gambler who can’t stop himself gambling at Ladbrokes every day.'
Three dealers - A.H. Baldwin and Sons Ltd, Dmitry Markov, who trades as Dmitry Markov Coins and Medals, and N&M Numismatics LLC - say the sheikh has given no 'explanation or excuse' for his failure to pay, and Mr Gruder said he had left an 'extraordinary trail of unpaid debts'.

The case reached the High Court as their lawyers urged Mr Justice Haddon-Cave to continue an asset freezing injunction imposed on the sheikh, who is a cousin of the ruling emir of Qatar, on October 9.

Mr Gruder made hotly disputed allegations that Sheikh Saud’s total unpaid bill to worldwide auctioneers and art dealers includes £4.3 million owed to Bonhams, around $42 million owed to Sothebys, and various other sums owed to at least five other auction houses and art dealers.

'The fact that he is a member of the Qatar royal family is not relevant,' the QC went on - 'because if this is his conduct it doesn’t matter who he is.'
He repeatedly gave A.H. Baldwin the 'run-around' when they tried to pin him down about paying the $19.7 million bill, Mr Gruder alleged, offering to pay part of the outstanding cash in return for acquiring some of the coins.

'There were further meetings asking for the money, but basically nothing was paid,' he added.
The deadlock over payment became so entrenched that the UK ambassador to Qatar - and his opposite number in London - became involved.

'But, despite the best efforts of the two ambassadors, no payment has been forthcoming from the sheikh,' said the QC.

The sheikh rose to prominence after he spent £1billion on art between 1996 and 2004.

In 2000, he splashed out more than £9m on 136 vintage photographs including great works by Man Ray and Alfred Stieglitz from the collection of Hamburg photographer Werner Bokelberg.

Other prominent purchases during this time include a £5m Fabergé egg bought at Christie's in New York in 2002, a £4.6m complete set of Audubon's Birds of America, and a £7.9m Roman marble statue, the Jenkins Venus.

In 2003 he beat London's V&A to purchase the £3m Clive of India flask. 'Sheikh Saud was a passionate art collector with a great eye,' said Georgina Adam, editor-at-large of The Art Newspaper.

In 2005 the Sheikh's spree came to a dramatic end when he was placed under house arrest in Qatar. He allegedly used a London dealer to fake invoices, misleading the Qatari government about the value of the items he was buying. He was sacked from the country's national culture council.

However, within a year he was spotted at auctions again. In 2008, he bought 90 per cent of the lots at a sale of Chinese art at Christie's. Last month, he was spotted at the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht.

Mr Gruder also voiced concerns that the sheikh might be decamping from his London base now that his creditors have begun to gather, claiming that he left the UK earlier this month 'when the going began to get hot'.
But the sheikh’s QC, Stephen Rubin, brushed aside the suggestion that he might be fleeing the jurisdiction. He is currently in Doha - Qatar’s capital - 'where he is a member of the royal family,' said the barrister.

'He hasn’t slunk off in the night to Doha,' added Mr Rubin, noting that it was 'not unusual' for men in the sheikh’s position to 'go back to the middle east when the temperatures begin to drop' in the UK.

However, Mr Gruder claimed the sheikh had left 'almost a trail of destruction' behind him.

'He is a serial defaulter, as we have seen, in terms of auctions,' the QC added.

Denying those accusations on the sheikh’s behalf, Mr Rubin said he had been 'trying to pay”for the coins for the past nine months.

'There are no doubt timing issues which go to why he cannot pay at the moment, but that’s not a reason to make a freezing order against someone,' urged the barrister, who said the sheikh had been a faithful customer to leading art dealers over the years.

'He is a very well-known and internationally regarded art collector,' said Mr Rubin, who denied that the sheikh had accumulated a tide of unpaid debts.

Mr Rubin also attacked the case against the sheikh as 'obviously wrong', pointing out that the dealers had no basis for enforcing a contract of sale with him, as they had merely 'organised' the sale of coins owned by an 'unidentified' client of A.H. Baldwin and Sons.
The QC added: 'The way in which the American complaint is formulated is misconceived, in that it purports to be a claim for enforcement of a ‘contract of sale’, notwithstanding that the claimants were not on any view parties to any such contract with the sheikh.'

There was no evidence before the court on the value of the coins which the sheikh 'allegedly agreed to buy', added the barrister, who said that the dealers still have the coins and are free to find a buyer for them if they wish.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave has now reserved his judgment in the case.

Coin collectors take Qatari art connoisseur to London court over $19 million debt

Art dealers in London are suing Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Al Thani for reportedly failing to pay $19.7 million for a collection of ancient Greek coins he bought at an auction in New York earlier this year, according to media reports.

They are also demanding the freezing of the assets of the 45-year-old Qatari, a former minister who was once widely regarded as the world’s largest collector of antiques before falling from grace in 2005.

The lawyer representing the coin dealers in the High Court in London denounced Al Thani as a “serial defaulter” who has allegedly racked up $60 million in debt to auction houses around the world, including $6.9 million owed to Bonhams and $42 million owed to Sothebys, the Telegraph reports:

“He bids, wins and then doesn’t pay. One can only conclude that this is a person acting dishonourably and disreputably and with mala fides,” (Jeffrey Gruder QC said)… Maybe he is like an inveterate gambler who can’t stop himself gambling at Ladbrokes every day.”

Al Thani’s lawyers denied the claims, saying he had tried to pay for the coins over the past nine months. Stephen Rubin QC also said the dealers only “organized” the sale of coins owned by an unidentified client of A.H. Baldwin and Sons.

The QC added: “The way in which the American complaint is formulated is misconceived; in that it purports to be a claim for enforcement of a ‘contract of sale’, notwithstanding that the claimants were not on any view parties to any such contract with the sheikh”.

The judge said he will issue his judgment at a later date.

In 2005, Al Thani was dismissed as Qatar’s Minister of Culture and placed under house arrest here after allegedly using a London dealer to fake invoices and misleading the government about the value of the items he was buying, the Daily Mail reports.

He re-emerged shortly after and continues to be a big spender in the art world, and much of the art we see on display in museums in Qatar stem from his purchases.