Umberto II of Italy
His greatest asset was his perfect recall of almost every rug or textile he had ever seen. Both at Sotheby's and as a dealer, he advised numerous collectors, among them Metropolitan Museum of Art, and royalty such as Hussein of Jordan, Umberto II of Italy, and Fahd of Saudi Arabia. In 1974 he was involved in ascertaining the genuineness of a 16th-century rug bought from Sotheby's by J. Paul Getty for £22,000.