Security World

Ferrari FX at the Marconi Automotive Museum, photographed in 2012. This is not a photograph of a current private garage in Brunei. Photo: Axion23 / Wikimedia Commons , CC BY 2.0 . No content alteration; resized display. Brunei’s royal car collection has become an internet shorthand for automotive excess: thousands of cars, bespoke Ferraris and rooms full of vehicles rarely seen in public. The difficulty is that a memorable total is much easier to repeat than a current, independently audited inventory is to obtain. The subject is still worth exploring. Documented individual vehicles reveal the relationship between wealthy patrons, manufacturers and specialist coachbuilders. They are a stronger foundation than treating every circulated number or old garage photograph as a complete account of the collection today. What does the “7,000 cars” figure establish? Without a dated inventory, a clear definition of ownership and independent verification, it should not be presented as a precise...