He's a Prince of a Guy

There is a saying that goes, "you're one in a million." Which, someone who is good at math has turned into "yeah, that means if you're in China, there are 2,000 people just like you."

(There are a thousand millions in a billion, and at least two billion people in China, so come on, do the math and get the answer of 2,000. Extra credit is if you do the math for India.)

As some people might know by now, a Leonardo da Vinci painting 'Salvator Mundi' (Savior of the World) has recently sold at auction for $450.3 million, fees included. Since there can be a 25% premium for items bought at auction, that is some sales commission Christie's has earned for itself.

The sale occurred three weeks ago, with the buyer then being undisclosed, since they won the bidding war via telephone bids. In Thursday's paper, the identity of the buyer was made public by the New York Times. A Saudi prince.

Americans are somewhat steeped in knowledge of the royal family of England, but the royal family of Saud? Not so much.

We know of Prince Philip, Philip Charles, Prince William, and of course now Prince Harry, who just announced his engagement to a biracial Catholic divorced American actress who is three years older than the 33-year-old prince. The prince's mother, Princess Diana is no longer with us, but one can reasonably speculate her reaction to such a match up would be approval for two people really in love.

Prince Harry's grandmum, the 91-year-old Queen Elizabeth, might not really be taking that news so well, but things change, and Harry is two generations removed from when she was getting reading to marry Philip.

In fact, Harry is fifth in line to ascend to the throne, with his father waiting patiently in the wings for mum to pass the royal scepter to him. Since Queen Elizabeth is now the longest reigning monarch in England, and her mum lived to be 101, passing away in 2002, when Prince Charles ascends to the throne it might be to a royal padded wheelchair. Motorized, of course.

In fact, Prince Harry is so far down the line of succession that there is little worry that the throne will be his. It would take a very bad amusement park accident to occur that had all the members of the royal family on it to vault Prince Harry toward any expectancy of being King.  At Ascot, he's a long shot. If the royal family were the mafia, Prince Harry might not even make capo.

But back to the buyer of the da Vinci. He's been identified as, hold on: Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin al-Saud.

As anyone who might be even a causal reader of these posts might know, I have a keen familiarity with the world of thoroughbred racing. Arabian royalty has been interested in the game for decades, with all thoroughbreds tracing their bloodlines back to three stallions: Darly, Godolphin and Byerly Turk. The Arabs have bought sires and broodmares for stunning amounts in the hopes of some day winning the Kentucky Derby. (For some reason, inside the entrance to the men's room at Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC on the 6th floor, there is a framed print of Byerly Turk. There is also an expression to "piss like a race horse," so maybe there really is a connection.)

Mohammad bin Salman al-Maktoum's name is often seen as owning and bidding on richly-bred thoroughbreds. Ironically, as much as the Arabs try to break through winning an American Classic, the Kentucky Derby and the other two jewels of the Triple Crown, were won in 2015 by an Egyptian, Jewish, high-stakes gambling owner who made a fortune selling beer in the Middle East, Ahmed Zayat. His horse, named American Pharoah, sired by Pioneer of the Nile, was the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. In racing, strange things are the norm.

In Saudi names, I suspect the longer the name the higher the rank. And with three bins in his name, Prince Bader might be expected to spend $450.3 million on a painting that some even doubt the authenticity of. There are those who feel it was not completely painted by Leonardo.

Prince Bader was such an unknown name at the start of the auction, Christie's had to strain to establish his bona fides. Sure he was able to pony up the $100 million just to be in the bidding, but did he have the resources to complete the deal?

A questionnaire of Prince Bader was answered by his people that he was a Prince, one of 5,000, and that his money was derived from real estate.

Yikes, there are 5,000 princes in the Saudi royalty? Five thousand beats the Kennedy family member count by a wide margin. It reminds me of the cartoon in 'The New Yorker' decades ago by Chon Day, who drew a middle aged couple leaving a suburban home where the husband turns to the wife and expresses some annoyance: "Did you have to tell them there were 52 vice-presidents at the bank?"

Apparently, Prince Bader is in tight with the crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and is in the process of building a vast recreational paradise. The da Vinci is going to be hung in the Louvre Abu Dhabi. I'm sure tourism is expected. Hang a da Vinci, and they'll come. Maybe even Tom Hanks.

There is something being made of an Arab owning an image of Jesus, since that's who the 'Salvator Mundi' depicts. In the Muslim religion, Jesus is a prophet, and images of a prophet are forbidden.

But Jesus was Jewish, and Admed Zayat is Jewish, and his horse won the Triple Crown.  'Salvator Mundi' might just be the thing they need.

Somewhat buried in the NYT story it is mentioned that Prince Bader, because of his high connections, has secured a "license from the kingdom to build a fiber-optic network in a strategic partnership with Verizon."

Not mentioned, but just as important, is the work Verizon is going to do creating a phone directory that follows an alphabetical scheme for listing the names of all the princes and princesses that stretch longer than a freight train rolling through Reno.

There's no point in connecting all those people without their being able to look each other up.

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