A member of the Qatari ruling family cannot blame the pandemic for delays in bringing legal action against a Swiss company over the $3m he paid for a ‘fake’ ancient marble bust of Alexander the Great, a London court has ruled.
Court of Appeal judges rejected claims by Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani, a cousin of the emir, and his company that the late filing of a claim against Geneva-based Phoenix Ancient Art was due to chaos caused by Covid-19.
Qatar Investment and Project Development Holding Company, headed by the well-known international collector, bought "the Head of Alexander the Great as Herakles" from the dealer in January 2014.
The 30cm-high artwork was described as more than 2,000 years old. But four years after buying the statue, the Qataris concluded that it was modern and “more or less worthless”, a previous hearing had heard.
The company in Doha said another reputedly 1,600-year-old piece bought a year earlier from the same sellers for $2.2m, a statuette of the Greek goddess of victory Nike, was also a modern remake worth a fraction of the price paid.
Phoenix maintained the works were genuine but agreed to exchange the two pieces for six other items amounting to a similar value. But the deal was never concluded after five of the replacements that were to be shipped from the US were held there by customs officers because of a breach of export rules.
The failure of the swap led to further talks which ended with the Qataris launching legal action in London’s High Court.
A judge had ruled last year that they had run out time in bringing the case. The Qataris appealed and said the judge had failed to take into account problems caused by the pandemic.
But three Appeal Court judges on Wednesday ruled that problems caused by Covid-19 came after “delays … for which there was no good excuse” and dismissed the appeal.
