JEDDAH, June 11: Thousands of rare and priceless works of art were destroyed in a massive fire which gutted Saudi Arabia’s largest private museum on Monday.
The Abdulrauf Hasan Khalil museum contained some 13,500 Islamic, international and Saudi works of art, some dating back to the Stone Age, the Okaz daily quoted owners as saying.
The fire broke out on Monday while employees were out for lunch and firefighters had battled it in vain, it said.
The damages have been estimated at 27 million dollars.
Sabotage has been ruled out by the owners of the museum, named after the man who founded it 17 years ago, but authorities are investigating. The fire is believed to have been caused by a short circuit.
The governor of Makkah province, which includes Jeddah, Prince Abdulmajeed bin Abdul Aziz, had rushed to the scene of the fire, the paper said. —AFP
