LONDON: Mohamed Al-Fayed, the former owner of Harrods, said Sunday he had the plush London emporium’s royal warrants taken down and burned.
The Egyptian tycoon, in a letter to The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, called the endorsements a "curse" on the luxury department store.
A royal warrant allows a supplier to advertise that they are used by the royal family.
The Harrods warrants were from Queen Elizabeth II, her husband Prince Philip, queen Elizabeth the queen mother and Prince Charles.
"I ordered their removal. Later, I had them burned. They were a curse and business tripled following their removal," Al-Fayed said.
The royal warrants were removed from Harrods in 2000.
Al-Fayed has consistently attacked the royal family with a variety of claims since the death of his son Dodi Fayed and Diana, princess of Wales in a Paris car crash in 1997.
In May, Al-Fayed sold Harrods to the investment arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. No figure was given.
In his letter, Al-Fayed called for the Qataris to keep two memorials to Diana and his son, which are located in the store. They are a statue of the two dancing together and a wine glass smudged with the princess’s lipstick from her last dinner before the crash.
"Unless and until this country gives the princess the thanks and devotion she deserves in the form of a fitting public memorial, this statue, ‘Innocent Victims’, should remain to remind the world of what was lost when two young people were on the brink of happiness together, were killed," he said.
"It is the only memorial to the princess in the country, if one discounts the misconceived municipal waterworks in Hyde Park that every year causes casualties among the children who slip over when paddling in it."
