LONDON.- The collection of paintings, antiques, sculptures and objets d’art belonging to the late Walid Juffali, the Saudi billionaire, will be offered by Bonhams on 26 March 2018 in an auction at Bishopsgate House, his estate in Surrey, UK. The sale comprises some 450 lots and is estimated at £4m.

The Walid Juffali Collection is drawn from the private family contents of Dr Juffali’s three properties in England and has been brought to auction by his children.

• Contents from Bishopsgate House, in Egham, Surrey, a mansion in a 42-acre estate, set on the edge of Windsor Great Park, the grounds of which have monumental bronzes by Fernando Botero in and major works by Dale Chihuly, including Float Boat, a sailing fantasia rendered in glass. Inside the 20-bedroom house, complete with a Chinoiserie drawing room, a ballroom and a gilded dining room, is an indoor swimming pool with a vast Chihuly chandelier and light fittings, two paintings by Arman and a steel bar. Throughout the house there are works by masters such as Andy Warhol, Picasso, Joan Miro, Marc Chagall, Henri Lebasque and Leonard Foujita. There are also collections of porcelain, silver, English and French furniture, books and objets d’art.

• Works of art and sculpture from St Saviour’s House in Knightsbridge, a four-storey award-winning conversion of a church, that housed a collection of Dr Juffali’s works by Anish Kapoor, Bernard Buffet, Chagall, Picasso, Miro and Alexander Calder.

• Paintings and objets d’art from Juffali’s property on the coast at Dartmouth, Devon.

Highlights of the Juffali Collection include:

• Two of Fernando Botero’s monumental bronze statues, Adam and Eve, 2003, estimated at £600,000 – 800,000.

• Anish Kapoor, Untitled, a stainless-steel dish, estimated at £300,000 – 400,000. (to be offered in Post-War & Contemporary Art Sale on 7 March at Bonhams New Bond Street)

• Picasso’s Homme a l’Agneau et Musicien, 1967, wax crayon on paper, estimate: £120,000 – 180,000. (to be offered in Impressionist and Modern Art Sale on 1 March at Bonhams New Bond Street)

• Joan Miro’s Composition, an ink and gouache work on paper, estimate: £70,000 – 90,000, (to be offered in Impressionist and Modern Art Sale on 1 March at Bonhams New Bond Street) one of 11 works by this artist in the Juffali Collection

• Impressive – and vast – glass chandelier by American artist, Dale Chihuly, estimated at £60,000 – 100,000, together with Float Boat, 2005, a glass work that was exhibited in Kew Gardens.

Dr Walid Juffali (1955 – 2016)
Saudi-born Dr Walid Juffali made an indelible mark on the global stage. From one of the wealthiest business families in Saudi Arabia, he was educated at Le Rosey in Switzerland, the US – at the University of San Diego – and then, after settling in London, he received a doctorate in neuroscience at Imperial College, London. From 2005, Juffali was chairman of his family’s company, E.A. Juffali Brothers, one of the largest companies in Saudi Arabia for telecommunications, infrastructure and insurance. Juffali’s personal fortune was considered to be $8 billion.

Another side of his life was as a connoisseur – Walid Juffali had a keen eye and appetite for art and antiques. He furnished his lavish properties in the UK, US, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland with works by some of the most celebrated names in the art world, including Picasso, Chagall, Miro, Calder, Kapoor and Fernando Botero.

He was married three times: to Basma al-Sulaiman. The couple lived with their three children in Jeddah where they would invite guests such as Margaret Thatcher and President George Bush. He then married the American model, Christina Estrada, in Dubai in 2001, with whom he had a daughter. The pair were well-known on the international circuit, but based themselves mainly at Bishopsgate House in Surrey. Estrada then filed for divorce when it was revealed that Juffali had followed the Saudi custom of taking more than one wife – in 2012, he married Loujain Adada in a remarkable ceremony in Venice that is said to have cost £10 million. Shortly afterwards, Dr Juffali discovered he had cancer. He lost his battle with the disease in July 2016.