Qatar Royal Family Ends Legal Battle Over World Famous Diamond—What To Know About The 'Idol's Eye'

Qatar Royal Family Ends Legal Battle Over World Famous Diamond—What To Know About The ‘Idol’s Eye’

Posted by author February 13, 2025 World

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Topline

A legal battle between two sides of the Qatar royal family over ownership of one of the world’s most famous diamonds—known as the Idol’s Eye—ended in London on Thursday when a judge ruled the 70-carat gem will remain with the family of a former Qatari culture minister.

The Idol’s Eye diamond shown in London on Dec. 3, 1979.

Key Facts

Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah al-Thani, an art collector in London, last year claimed he had a right to buy the stone from Elanus, a company owned by the family foundation of the former culture minister, and his cousin, the late Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed bin Ali al-Thani.

Sheikh Hamad claimed an offer to sell the precious stone was made to him by Sheikh Saud’s son in 2020, and he asked a court to uphold his right to buy the Idol’s Eye through his investment company, Qipco.

The Mohammed Ali al-Thani side of the family, however, argued a sale was never seriously considered and a judge Thursday said Elanus could not be compelled to sell the gem.

Sa’ad Hossain KC, the attorney representing Elanus, said the Idol’s Eye had been kept in the personal safe of Sheikh Saud at his London home and called it “one of the most significant pieces in his collection, and one of the pieces he was most proud of.”

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Big Number:

$27 million. That’s how much the Idol’s Eye was valued to be worth today by an Elanus diamond expert, Reuters reported.

Key Background

The Idol’s Eye, thought to be the world’s largest cut blue diamond, has a storied history that includes ownership by a Persian prince and several decades in the hands of American collectors and jewelers before making its way to London. It ranks among the Hope Diamond, the Taylor-Burton Diamond and the Great Star of Africa as one of the most famous in the world, and its history dates back to the early 17th century, when it is said to have been discovered in the Golconda region of India. The stone is thought to have been first owned by Prince Rahab of Persia, who is rumored to have lost it when the East India Company seized it to pay his debts. The Idol’s Eye was then missing for hundreds of years before its next known sighting, when it was auctioned by Christie’s in London in 1865 to Abdul Hamid II, the “Great Khan” sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and then sold to a Spanish nobleman. After World War II, American jeweler Harry Winston, still known as the “jeweler to the stars,” bought the stone and set it as a pendant necklace that contained dozens of other diamonds, bringing the total weight of the piece to more than 100 carats. It then sold to several other Americans before it was bought by Sheikh Saud for about £7 million ($8.78 million) in 2004.

Surprising Fact

There is a rumor the stone was kept by the Ottoman sultan as the eye of a secret idol in the Temple of Benghazi, but the theory has never been proven.