Curse of the Sheikh's sword

Auctioneer Christopher Devereaux with the sword. Photo / Herald on Sunday

It is worth its weight in gold, encrusted in pearls, shrouded in mystery - and reputedly mired in bad luck.

The magnificent presentation sword given to former Prime Minister David Lange by the Emir of Bahrain is for sale, if the auctioneers can find a buyer rich enough and rash enough to brave the Curse of the Sheikh's Sword.

Before he died, Lange warned that the sword's owner would always be dogged by ill fortune.

"He should take care not to fall on it," the one-time leader said grimly. "It doesn't pay to have the sword, mate."

He should know.

He was presented with the metre-long sword and scabbard in 1985 by visiting Sheikh Isa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, the leader of the tiny but prosperous Middle Eastern oil emirate of Bahrain.

The wealthy sheikh was having his own troubles. A few years earlier his authorities had arrested 73 members of a fundamentalist Islamic group that had attempted to overthrow his government; the following year the Qatari army occupied his offshore Fasht al-Dibal Island.

Almost from the moment that Lange accepted the sword, he faced probing questions about his plans to keep the gift himself, rather than handing it over to the government.

With his ousting as prime minister and the end of his marriage, Lange's new partner, Margaret Pope, was spooked by the 1.6kg weapon with its Arabic inscriptions and clusters of pearls.

Perhaps Lange was speaking tongue-in-cheek when he blamed losing his job on "that wretched thing" - but Pope was taking no risks.

After Lange brought it home from his Parliament office, she had it stored in their Mangere basement. In 1991, she had it valued for $550 and sold by auctioneer Dunbar Sloane in Wellington.

"I sold it because I always had a bad feeling about it," Pope says now. "It was very unpleasant and it just brought bad luck and it was wrong to have it in the house."

Lange was accused by the new Prime Minister, Jim Bolger, of committing an "appalling" diplomatic crime by selling the Emir's gift.

And the buyer, a Wellington antiques collector by the name of John Barlow, was gleeful. He realised that the hilt and most of the scabbard were solid 21-carat gold - not just gold-plated as the valuer had thought.

But in 1994, Barlow was charged with the murder of businessmen Eugene and Gene Thomas. The legal fees mounted over three trials, and Barlow put the sword up for sale. His wife, Angela Barlow, is not sure that she believes in the curse - but neither does she believe that her husband killed the Thomases. "Bad luck?" she asks. "Bad police procedures, I think."

Regardless, her husband remains behind bars, still awaiting a verdict from his appeal to the Privy Council in London.

Paul Henry, then a TVNZ newsreader, was intrigued to see the sword on sale. As much as anything, he says now, he just wanted to see the inside of the accused murderer's house.

"I went around and I remember sitting in his lounge with his wife and she brought out this dusty wooden box," he says. "I bought it for $20,000, stuck it in the back of my car and drove it home.

"I read that everyone who touches it has bad luck, but I can't say that it brought me bad luck, because I made money on it."

Henry put up the sword for auction in 2000, the year after he was defeated by Labour's Georgina Beyer in the Parliamentary election.

Lange suggested to the Evening Post that the aspiring National MP must have been glad to be rid of the sword's bad luck: "The guy lost the safe National seat of Wairarapa to a transsexual," Lange taunted.

The buyer, retail magnate Sir Roger Bhatnagar, paid more than $42,275 (including buyer's premium) for the sword. Now, he is seriously ill and selling off some of his art and collectibles.

"My dad is very sick and he's very aware of his mortality," said his son Aaron Bhatnagar, an Auckland City councillor. "The sword is not going to do him much good - I think he would rather have some nice property that our kids can enjoy."

Speaking through his son, Sir Roger said he had liked the sword's Middle Eastern flavour and its "colourful history. We Bhatnagars believe in making our own luck, rather than being superstitious about these things. As far as Dad is concerned, he says the sword has bought him good luck."

So has Sir Roger broken the Curse of the Sheikh's Sword - or is worse to come?

The sword, which now carries a guide price of between $40,000 and $50,000, will be auctioned by Webb's on April 1 ... if anyone is fool enough to buy it.