Qatari Sheikh Loses Battle over Right to Buy 70ct. Blue Diamond
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The Qatar ruler’s cousin cannot force a fellow member of the royal family to sell him the Idol’s Eye, a 70.21-carat blue diamond that is worth millions, according to the London High Court.
In a February 13 ruling, the court dismissed Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani’s claim that an agreement set up with his relative, the diamond’s owner, Sheikh Saoud bin Mohammed Ali Al Thani, and Elanus Holdings, a company hired to manage the diamond, included an obligation to sell the stone to him for GBP 10 million ($12.6 million).
Shortly before Sheikh Saoud’s death in 2014, he lent the diamond to Qatar Investment & Project’s Development Holding (QIPCO), which Sheikh Hamad ran. The agreement allegedly included the option to give QIPCO first refusal on the purchase of the diamond should Elanus decide to sell.
The disagreement over the sale of the stone came into play following a short period in 2020 when Sheikh Saoud’s family considered selling the diamond and requested estimates from Christie’s and Sotheby’s on its value at auction. While presiding judge Simon Birt found that Sheikh Saoud’s family was interested in exploring the sale of the diamond, it was not willing to sell for any price, which is why it had contacted the auction houses. That was not enough to trigger the obligation to provide the right of first refusal, according to the filing.
“[Sheikh Saoud’s son] did not want to sell at any price,” the judge noted in the ruling. “He had no more than a generalized intention to sell if the price was right. Although he was keen to explore how a sale could be effected and what price could be achieved, he had not reached a final decision definitely to sell, and he did not have a settled intention to carry a sale.”
Christie’s estimated that the stone, which is said to have been discovered in the Golconda mines, could fetch up to $35 million at auction, given its provenance and history, and the possibility of recutting it to make it fancy light blue.
