African Art Club

‘My family thinks I’m crazy’: Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar

Will you visit the following streets of the Parcours? rues des Beaux-Arts, rue de Seine, rue Jacques Callot,  rue Mazarine, rue Guénégaud, rue Visconti, rue Jacob and rue de l’Echaudé. Official site is http://www.parcours-paris.eu/

The new honor president of the Parcours is cheikh Saoud Al Thani- Chairmain of Qtel a company with a revenue of US$3.6 billion - a quite controversial figure even if he started loving African Art recently and is known as a big spender in the Arts who just created a private Museum in Doha capital of Quatar under the supervision of the well-known architect Jean Nouvel.

As chairman of Qatar’s National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage (NCCAH), al-Thani has been buying art on behalf of the Emir for the past eight years, helping transform Qatar into a world-class cultural centre complete with five new museums.

So a big spenders will go around for private shopping at the Parcours des Mondes to buy the finest pieces. He can afford to pay whatever price needed and will not take a “NO not for sale”  as a valid answer. “I admire Sheikh Saud’s passion, but I’m very much aware of the potentially destabilising force when a collector arrives on the art market with seemingly unlimited resources,” says Philippe Garner. “It can lead to unrealistic expectations on the part of vendors.”

A few years ago (in 2005) Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar  was in disgrace and under arrest in the Qatari capital Doha, pending an investigation into the alleged misuse of public .. ...