Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani’s Avenue Floquet Collection Achieves €24.4M at Sotheby’s Paris

November 10, 2026 / Sophie Clearwater /

Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani’s Avenue Floquet Collection sold at Sotheby’s Paris in a five-part auction series which achieved €24.4 million, with every lot sold. Photo Thomas Ledoux / Courtesy Sotheby’s

It is not every day that the entirety of a distinguished Parisian residence comes to market, but that’s precisely what inspired five dedicated auctions held at Sotheby’s Paris on November 4-9. The multi-category, cross-century series brought the contents of Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani’s Avenue Floquet residence to the block, achieving a total of €24.4 million after a €10.4-15.7 million pre-sale estimate. The five sales achieved white-glove results, with more than 57 percent of the lots exceeding their high estimates.

Collectively titled Une demeure princière: La résidence de son Altesse Cheikh Hamad Bin Abdullah Al Thani, Parts I through V presented the contents of the Sheikh’s hôtel particulier overlooking the Eiffel Tower in Paris’s prestigious 7th arrondissement. Prior to the sales, more than 1,400 objects were exhibited for 10 days, taking over both of the auction house’s 83 and 76 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré spaces with immersive installations designed by Jacques Garcia and Chahan Minassian. “It took a village, two buildings and two of the world’s most renowned designers to bring the spirit of the residence to life for the public,” Mario Tavella, Sotheby’s chairman for Europe and president of Sotheby’s France, said in a statement.

The series opened with Part I, an evening sale that achieved €7.3 million, nearly doubling its €3.7-5.6 million estimate. Bidding was strong across categories spanning Old Master portraiture, Dutch Delftware, silver and European furniture, with approximately 60 percent of lots selling above their high estimates.

Leading the evening—and the entire auction series—was a monumental Roman marble figure of a youth, dating to the first or second century A.D., which sold for €448,000 against an estimate of €250,000-400,000. First documented in the collection of Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke (1656-1733), the statue was at Wilton House by the early 18th Century. It stood in a niche in the Great Hall, opposite a statue of Mercury, until the mid-19th Century, when it was moved to the Cloisters with most of the other antiquities. After its sale at auction in 1961, the sculpture spent many decades in the middle of a pond at The Old Rectory in Burghfield, Berkshire. It then appeared at Sotheby’s New York in 2009, where it sold with restored arms for $182,500; Sheikh Hamad acquired it from Basel dealer Jean-David Cahn in 2012.

The Grand Salon of Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani’s Avenue Floquet residence, with deep red walls hung with large-scale paintings, an elaborate carved fireplace, a richly decorated ceiling, crystal chandelier, patterned carpet and an arrangement of antique furniture, sculptures and decorative objects. — The series saleroom tapped into the spirit of Avenue Floquet. Photo: Thomas Ledoux / Courtesy Sotheby’s

Other highlights included a Roman marble figure of Dionysos from around the second century A.D., which achieved €268,800, nearly three times its high estimate of €100,000). Formerly in the collection of John W. Kluge, it was acquired at a Christie’s New York auction held in 2011 to benefit Columbia University. A Roman marble figure of Artemis, dating to the first or second century A.D., fetched €108,800 against an estimate of €50,000-80,000. Its earliest documentation places it in the collections of Cardinals Paolo Emilio Cesi (1481-1537) and Federico Cesi (1500-1565), who acquired it before 1550 for the garden of Palazzo Cesi on the Janiculum in Rome. Sheikh Hamad acquired it in 2012 from the Allen E. Paulson Living Trust.

Dutch Delftware also attracted considerable interest. A pair of blue-and-white flower pyramids, circa 1695, achieved €281,600, nearly three times their high estimate, while an oval flower vase, circa 1695-1700, realized €218,600, more than twice its low estimate. The Old Master portraits also attracted spirited bidding, with particularly strong results for works associated with the Elizabethan and Jacobean courts. A portrait miniature from the studio of Nicholas Hilliard depicting a young gentleman clasping a hand that emerges from a cloud, soared to €249,600, more than seven times its high estimate. Executed in watercolor, gouache, gold and silver on vellum, it is considered a studio copy, possibly by Rowland Lockey, of a Hilliard miniature in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The sitter has been variously identified as Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and William Shakespeare. Formerly in the collection of Mrs. T. S. Eliot, née Esmé Valerie Fletcher, the work was acquired by Sheikh Hamad at a dedicated sale at Christie’s London in 2013 for £47,500. Its extensive exhibition history includes the Royal Academy in London and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; it was last shown publicly at the Hôtel de la Marine in Paris in 2024 in “A Taste for the Renaissance: A Dialogue Between Collections.”

Another, smaller portrait by Hilliard depicting Anne of Denmark, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and acquired for £62,500 at the same Christie’s sale, more than doubled its high estimate to reach €104,960. An English School portrait of Elizabeth I, circa 1595, nearly doubled its high estimate, selling for €230,400. Possibly commissioned by Sir Thomas Hesketh (1548-1605) for his gallery in the Great Hall at Heslington Hall, North Yorkshire, it was acquired by Sheikh Hamad at Sotheby’s London in 2011, when it was offered as property of the Trustees of Ampleforth Abbey and sold for £193,250.

The sale also demonstrated buyers’ appetite for 18th-century French portraiture. Two works by Jean-Marc Nattier and his studio—a portrait of Louise-Henriette de Bourbon-Conti, Duchess of Chartres, as Hébé, and a portrait of a gentleman dressed in black—each achieved €96,000, more than twice their respective high estimates. The first, documented in the collection of Earl Stendahl in Los Angeles in 1937, was originally acquired at Sotheby’s New York in 2010 for $374,500. The second came from Paris dealer Eric Coatalem after selling at Tajan in 2008 for €52,199.

A richly decorated console table in one of the Avenue Floquet residence’s interiors, topped with gilt-bronze and silver decorative objects, two white marble classical sculptures and illuminated table lamps. Above it, an ornate dark wood and ivory-inlaid mirror is surrounded by a dense arrangement of framed miniature portraits and paintings, set against vertically striped wallpaper. — Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani’s home on Avenue Floquet was a storied hôtel particulier in the 7th arrondissement overlooking the Eiffel Tower. Louis Blancard • Art Digital Studio • Block Design Group • Sotheby’s

Further results reflected the breadth of a collection that also includes European decorative arts, furniture and porcelain. A pair of Italian giltwood sofas from Genoa achieved €345,600, surpassing a €300,000 high estimate, while a silver Venus and Antonius from Mentmore, probably made by Lorenz Biller II in Augsburg around 1700, realized €332,800 against an estimate of €150,000-250,000.

A pair of George III giltwood armchairs in the manner of Thomas Chippendale, circa 1765, doubled their high estimate to reach €256,000. Among the porcelain, a group of 24 Sèvres fond bleu agate plates from the Petites Vues de France service, circa 1858, more than tripled its high estimate, selling for €160,000. A Louis XV gilt-bronze-mounted Chinese lacquer and Parisian varnish commode also performed strongly, achieving €140,800 against an estimate of €40,000-60,000, while a pair of late 20th-century English gilt-brass and crystal 36-light chandeliers in the Adam style more than doubled their high estimate to realize €121,600.

The momentum carried through the four subsequent sessions. Part II totaled €1.9 million against an estimate of €1.2-1.8 million, with 35 percent of lots selling above their high estimates. Meanwhile, Art Deco design in Part III produced some of the week’s other top results. Leading that session was a desk by Eugène Printz, which achieved €358,400 against an estimate of €120,000-180,000. The session also confirmed strong demand for pieces by Diego Giacometti, whose Table basse à deux plateaux aux grenouilles sold for €281,600 (est. €150,000-200,000), while André Arbus’s Actéon soared to €249,600 against a much more modest estimate of €20,000-30,000. The Arbus was originally acquired in 2006 at Tajan in Paris for €44,396.

Part IV brought in another €4.9 million against an estimate of €2.5-3.7 million, with half the lots selling above their high estimates. The Online Sale (Part V) totaled €1.8 million, nearly double its €958,700 high estimate, with more than 66 percent of lots exceeding their estimates.

Described by Sotheby’s as “one of Paris’s greatest private residences,” the Avenue Floquet property was acquired by Sheikh Hamad from São Schlumberger. With designer Alberto Pinto, he set out to transform it into an environment of refinement and elegance. Avenue Floquet is considered the culmination of their longstanding creative partnership, following their celebrated restoration of the Hôtel Lambert, whose contents Sotheby’s Paris offered in 2022 for more than €76.6 million, making it the most valuable collection of French decorative arts ever sold at auction.

The Al Thani Collection

The son of Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister from 1996 to 2007, and a first cousin of the current Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani founded QIPCO (Qatar Investment & Projects Development Holding Company) with his five brothers in 1999. Over the years, he has assembled an extensive private collection spanning antiquities, historical objects, jewelry and decorative arts, yet he remains one of the art world’s more discreet figures.

Since November 2021, highlights from the Al Thani Collection have been on public view in a dedicated museum space at the Hôtel de la Marine on Place de la Concorde in Paris. The historic building once housed the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, the institution responsible for the French Crown’s furnishings and royal collections. The inaugural exhibition, “Treasures of the Al Thani Collection,” presented approximately 120 objects under the curatorial direction of Amin Jaffer. The galleries were established under a 20-year agreement between the Al Thani Collection Foundation and the Centre des monuments nationaux, making a rotating selection of the collection accessible to the public.

Alongside highlights from the collection, the galleries host a rotating program of thematic exhibitions and loans from international museum partners. The current presentation, “Animalia: Bestiary from the Al Thani Collection” (on through January 10, 2027), explores the enduring fascination with the animal kingdom through more than 120 objects depicting real and imaginary creatures. Spanning four continents and several millennia, the selection ranges from ancient votive sculptures to historic jewelry and decorative objects.