SWITZERLAND: SOTHEBY'S DIRECTOR DAVID BENNET SAYS RECOVERED SAUDI COINS FROM SEA BED COULD SELL FOR 20 MILLION U.S DOLLARS

Record ID: 190134

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: SOTHEBY'S DIRECTOR DAVID BENNET SAYS RECOVERED SAUDI COINS FROM SEA BED COULD SELL FOR 20 MILLION U.S DOLLARS
  • Date: 8th November 1995
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (NOVEMBER 8, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV EXT. HOTEL BEAURIVAGE 0.04 2. GV MAP SHOWING WHERE COINS WERE DISCOVERED 0.09 3. MCU/ VARIOUS COINS ON DISPLAY (5 SHOTS) 0.48 4. SV SOTHEBY'S DIRECTOR DAVID BENNET HOPES COINS WILL FETCH 20 MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS (ENGLISH) 1.02 5. CU/MCU COINS ON DISPLAY (2 SHOTS) 1.1 SEQ.4: TRANSCRIPT; BENNET: "NOTHING REMOTELY LIKE THIS IN THIS VOLUME HAS EVER BEEN PLACED ON THE MARKET. AT THIS POINT, IT'S REALLY TOE IN THE WATER BUT WE ARE ESTIMATING THAT IT COULD FETCH AS MUCH AS 20 MILLION DOLLARS.". Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 23rd November 1995 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
  • City:
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Reuters ID: LVABQAYUR5U8BXWDPPH9LNEH77LA
  • Story Text: Over a million United States-minted Saudi coins retrieved last year after half a century on the bed of the Arabian Sea could fetch 20 million U.S. dollars when they go on sale in Geneva next week, Sotheby's auction house said on Wednesday (November 8).

    The coins, 1.3 million in all, were part of a secret shipment from the United States to Saudi Arabia in 1944 after a deal between the two countries to ensure the Allies had enough oil to pursue the fight against Nazi Germany.

    "The sale reflects a slice of American, Saudi and European history, and it casts an interesting light on wartime oil politics," Sotheby's director David Bennet told Reuters.

    The coins are silver Riyals which were the Saudi currency from the kingdom's foundation in 1932 until 1964.

    The coins, packed in wooden boxes, were secretly loaded into the hold of an American ship, the SS John Barry -- in July 1944, which then set off for the Gulf ostensibly carrying only military equipment.

    But after a safe voyage across the Atlantic and through the Mediterranean and Red Sea, it was sunk by a German submarine on August 28.

    More than half the treasure remains on the seabed, but has been declared unrecoverable.


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