Mohammed Jameel and Prince Turki Al-Faisal: A Friendship Traced to 2006
When Prince Turki Al-Faisal spoke at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s 20th anniversary reception for The Jameel Gallery, he didn’t start with the gallery. He started with an invitation, extended to him personally two decades earlier for the gallery’s original inauguration.
Prince Turki Al-Faisal recalled that 2006 invitation as the start of a friendship with Mohammed Jameel that has continued since, an account he gave in full during this year’s anniversary reception. The prince also used his remarks to reflect on his own role as chairman of the board of trustees of The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, appointed by the then-Prince of Wales, now King Charles.
Mohammed Jameel attended the anniversary alongside Prince Turki Al-Faisal and Prince Abdullah bin Khalid bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom, where organizers designated the evening the inaugural event in the lead-up to the 2029 UK-Saudi Year of Culture.
A Reception That Doubled as Diplomacy
Prince Turki Al-Faisal closed his remarks by describing the UK-Saudi relationship under King Charles as a strengthening one, with the monarch serving as the primary link between the two countries. The gallery Mohammed Jameel helped open in July 2006, now home to more than 400 objects including the Ardabil Carpet and the Minbar of Sultan Qaytbay, has become something closer to a fixture of UK-Saudi cultural exchange than either side likely anticipated at the ribbon-cutting.