PARIS/DUBAI (Reuters, AlArabiya.net)
The sale of a luxury yacht once owned by former dictator Saddam Hussein, moored until recently off France, has met with muted interest from would-be buyers, the legal firm overseeing the operation said on Tuesday.
The Iraqi government said on Sunday that it planned to sell the Ocean Breeze, one of the many opulent treasures that belonged to Saddam, and that the pleasure boat would probably be sold within weeks.
That confirmation followed a report in Britain's Sunday Times which said the 270-foot yacht, featuring gold-tap bathrooms, a helicopter landing pad and a secret escape passageway, should fetch $30 million.
" People are always into owned something by a personality whether it’s a good boy or bad boy " David Nunn, Yacht Master Ship Management Legal firm Cohen-Amir Aslani-Marseillan-D'Ornano & Associates confirmed that the sales process had begun but had not yet attracted much solid interest.
"Given the current economic climate, clients are not falling over themselves (to make the purchase)," said one executive, noting a deafening silence from potential buyers.
But not everyone agreed that the economic downturn would affect the luxury boat market much, and even suggested that owning a piece of property from such an infamous figure could be attractive.
“There’s always going to people who can afford to buy these sort of vessels,” David Nunn, operations manager for Dubai’s Yacht Master Ship Management, told AlArabiya.net Thursday. “People are always into owned something by a personality whether it’s a good boy or bad boy,” he added. “It’s sort of a celebrity thing.”
Ocean Breeze had been the object of legal wrangling in the past with Jordan, which had claimed it as its own, before the yacht was handed to the Iraqi government last year, legal sources said.
After spending months moored off the French resort of Nice and elsewhere in the country, Ocean Breeze left for Greece a few weeks ago to undergo renovations in preparation for its sale.
Saddam, whose decades-long regime came to an abrupt end after a U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and who was hanged in 2006 for crimes against humanity, was known for a lavish lifestyle.
U.S. missiles and bombs destroyed another luxurious Saddam yacht, the Al Mansur, in southern Iraq in 2003, with the re-named Ocean Breeze likely escaping because it was never part of his personal fleet, having been moored in Saudi Arabia and France.
While grand when it was built in 1981, the Ocean Breeze is puny compared with megayachts commissioned by a new wave of super-rich, including a 138-meter long yacht now owned by the Sheikh of Dubai -- after the Prince of Brunei ran out of funds -- which boasts 12 enormous suites, each with its own balcony. |
