Mohammed bin Salman is Saudi Arabia's crown prince.
Two years ago, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman announced an initial public offering for Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s national petroleum and natural gas company in 2018. The plan at the time was to raise $100 billion for a company valued at $2 trillion dollars. It was recently revealed that the sale has been delayed, leading some to refer to it as the zombie IPO. Read more about the other times that MBS, as the prince is commonly referred to, made headlines, some good, some bad:
1. The royal arrests MBS made news last year as he unleashed a corruption purge in Saudi Arabia. Over 300 of the country’s best known figures were detained in a luxury hotel for almost three months as the investigations went on. The list included Alwaleed bin Talal, considered to be one of the world’s richest men. At the end of the clean-up act, almost $100 billion was mopped up for the economy.
2. Assassination attempt In May, news of gunshots being heard close to MBS’ palace broke, leading to some sections of the press to speculate an assassination attempt.
3. Cinema, the teacher MBS speaks halting English. W hat he does know of the language, was picked up through watching movies.
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4. A taste for high art When Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Salvator Mundi’ auctioned for a record $450 million last year, it later emerged that MBS acted through a distant cousin to snag the artwork, which will be displayed at Louvre, Abu Dhabi.
5. When de-stressing Apparently, the 32-year old crown prince’s favourite diversion is Call of Duty, the video game.
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6. Women at the wheel Last month, for the first time in the kingdom’s history, women were finally legally allowed to drive.
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It is suggested that the move has the markings of the crown prince.
7. Comfortable with Western mores Given the conservative stance that the kingdom is renowned to take towards women, even the innocuous act of shaking hands with women, albeit in Western nations, has given MBS modern airs.
Now Abu Dhabi Gets A Louvre For One Billion Euros
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The layering of 7,850 patterned perforations creates a 'rain of light'. Each ray of the sun must cross through all eight layers to reach the ground, creating an intricate and ever-shifting pattern.
(Image: Twitter/@LouvreAbuDhabi)
The layering of 7,850 patterned perforations creates a 'rain of light'. Each ray of the sun must cross through all eight layers to reach the ground, creating an intricate and ever-shifting pattern.
..
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The dome is composed of eight superimposed layers: four outer layers in stainless steel and four inner layers separated by a steel structure that is five metres high.
(Image: Twitter/@LouvreAbuDhabi)
The dome is composed of eight superimposed layers: four outer layers in stainless steel and four inner layers separated by a steel structure that is five metres high.
(Image: Twitter/@LouvreAbuDhabi
The entire area is covered by a latticework, silvery dome that is 36 metres high, and weighs 7,500 tonnes -- almost as much as the Eiffel Tower.
The dome appears to float, as its four pillars are hidden within the museum.
(Image: Twitter/@LouvreAbuDhabi)
The entire area is covered by a latticework, silvery dome that is 36 metres high, and weighs 7,500 tonnes -- almost as much as the Eiffel Tower.
The dome appears to float, as its four pillars are hi..
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The museum will host 23 permanent galleries. The permanent galleries will cover art and artefacts from the earliest Mesopotamian civilisations to the present day.
(Image: Twitter/@LouvreAbuDhabi)
The museum will host 23 permanent galleries. The permanent galleries will cover art and artefacts from the earliest Mesopotamian civilisations to the present day.
(Image: Twitter/@LouvreAbuDhabi)
Indoor exhibition spaces is cover across 8,600 square metres, which includes a children's museum. The galleries will showcase 600 works of art, including 300 loaned by 13 French museums for the inaugural year.
In pic: Princess Henuttawy’s body has been preserved for almost 3000 years.
(Image: Twitter/@LouvreAbuDhabi)
Indoor exhibition spaces is cover across 8,600 square metres, which includes a children's museum. The galleries will showcase 600 works of art, including 300 loaned by 13 French museums for the inaug..
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The Louvre Abu Dhabi is part of a vast "museum city" that includes 55 white buildings inspired by traditional Arab medinas. It also includes the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, still under construction.
(Image: Twitter/@LouvreAbuDhabi)
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is part of a vast "museum city" that includes 55 white buildings inspired by traditional Arab medinas. It also includes the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, still under construction.
(Imag..
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The museum is built on a 97,000 square metre site on Saadiyat Island, a low-lying island 500 metres off the coast of Abu Dhabi. Engineers had to move 503,000 cubic meters of sand to lay the foundations for the museum.
(Image: www.louvreabudhabi.ae)
The museum is built on a 97,000 square metre site on Saadiyat Island, a low-lying island 500 metres off the coast of Abu Dhabi. Engineers had to move 503,000 cubic meters of sand to lay the foundatio..
8. The musician in him Reportedly once, during a meeting at the home of US Secretary of State John Kerry, MBS spotted a grand piano, and walking over, played the Moonlight Sonata.
9. Nicknames An article in the The New Yorker mentions an anecdote that is circulated in Riyadh about him: The crown prince demanded that a Saudi land-registry official help him appropriate a property. After the official refused, he received an envelope with a single bullet inside. The episode earned MBS the street name Abu Rasasa, or ‘father of the bullet’.
10. Unabashedly rich That the Saudi royal family lives lavishly is an open secret. So MBS buying yachts and chateaus is hardly surprising. When asked about such purchases in a previous interview he’d said: “As far as my private expenses, I’m a rich person and not a poor person. I’m not Gandhi or Mandela.
Mystery Buyers: When The Saudi Prince Bought Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi'
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Sold for: $643,900
Literally the skeleton of a mammoth is what went under the gavel at an auction in Lyon, France. The 15,000-year-old skeleton was purchased by a Strasbourgbased construction company Soprema for $643,900. Why? Because the company sells a coating product called Mammouth, or Mammoth in English. And seemingly they felt that an actual mammoth skeleton is perfect decoration for their reception lobby. "We are going to display it in the lobby of our firm," Pierre-Etienne Bindschedler, the CEO of Soprema, told newspapers after the purchase, adding, "I think we have enough room."
(Image: www.aguttes.com)
Sold for: $643,900
Literally the skeleton of a mammoth is what went under the gavel at an auction in Lyon, France. The 15,000-year-old skeleton was purchased by a Strasbourgbased construction compan..
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Sold for: $110 million
The Brooklyn-based artist died at a young age of 27 after a drug overdose. But he was already one of the leading figures in the world of modern art, Basquiat's glory lives on, and in 2017 found a collector. Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire, bought Basquiat's skull painting for over $110 million at an auction in May.
Maezawa hopes to display the work at the museum he plans to open in Chiba, his hometown in Japan. He is the founder of an online fashion mall and is the 14th richest person in Japan. Apparently, the billionaire's extensive art collection hangs on the walls of a rented apartment in Tokyo.
(Image: www.sothebys.com)
Sold for: $110 million
The Brooklyn-based artist died at a young age of 27 after a drug overdose. But he was already one of the leading figures in the world of modern art, Basquiat's glory lives on,..
