LONDON: A car once owned by King Faisal I of Iraq has gone on sale in the US, with current bids standing at more than $1.5 million.
Faisal, who was helped into his position by the British diplomat, archaeologist and adventurer T.E. Lawrence, bought the Mercedes-Benz 770K four-door cabriolet in 1930.
He used it for state business in Baghdad until his death in 1933, after which it was used for the same purpose by his son and grandson, Ghazi and Faisal II, both kings of Iraq.
The car was refurbished in Beirut in 1958, just before Faisal II was overthrown in a coup and killed, and then remained disused in Baghdad for a decade.
It was purchased by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation in 1967 and taken back to Beirut before being shipped to the US, where it has been on display ever since at the foundation’s museum at the Indianapolis racetrack and occasionally given a run out in vintage car rallies.
Faisal I was the third son of Sharif Hussein bin Ali, who was encouraged by Lawrence, who was representing the British government, to rise up against the then-ruling Ottoman Empire at the outbreak of the First World War.
Following the conclusion of the conflict, Britain and France carved up the Middle East territories of the defeated Ottomans and granted Iraq to Faisal and Jordan to his brother Abdullah.
The story of Faisal and his family’s influence over the region, and the role Lawrence played in their rise to prominence, was the subject of the 1962 film “Lawrence of Arabia,” which won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
