Displaying items by tag: carpets

Pairing luxurious textiles from Turkey, Iran, and Syria with richly detailed 17th-century paintings by Dutch and Flemish masters, the exhibition "A Thirst for Riches: Carpets from the East in Paintings from the West" opened June 6 at the Aga Khan Museum. Running until October 18, the exhibition features signature carpets and paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, supplemented by loans from the Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto; the Leiden Collection, New York; the Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and the Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf Collection, Toronto.

This May, the Dallas Museum of Art will welcome one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in private hands. The works will be on long-term loan to the museum and will transform the institution’s Islamic art collection into the third largest of its kind in North America. The collection’s signature work, a rock crystal pitcher, will go on view at the Dallas Museum this year, followed by more than 50 works in 2015.

The Keir Collection of Islamic art was assembled over five decades by the late art collector Edmund de Unger. According to museum officials, the collection “is recognized by scholars as one of the world’s most geographically and historically comprehensive, encompassing almost 2,000 works in a range of media that span 13 centuries of Islamic art-making.” The Keir Collection, which is named after the 18th-century British mansion where is was housed, includes textiles, carpets, ceramics, rock crystal, metalwork and works on paper from the western Mediterranean to South Asia.

The lender is covering all costs related to the packing and shipping of the collection to the Dallas Museum of Art, along with any conservation that is required and any print publications the museum plans to produce. The museum was not charged a fee for acquiring the collection, but it will pay to have the works insured as well as any costs relating to the display of the objects.

The 88-year-old Textile Museum will move from its historic DuPont Circle home to the George Washington University campus in Washington, D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood as part of a $33 million project. Construction on the new 35,000-square-foot museum is underway and expected to reach completion in spring 2014. The transfer of 19,000 works, some dating back thousands of years, is expected to take an additional six months. The Textile Museum’s new location is slated to open to the public in late fall 2014.

Founded by American forester, philanthropist and collector George Hewitt Myers, the museum’s mission is to expand public knowledge and appreciation of the artistic merits and cultural importance of the world’s textiles. The museum’s collection includes 15^th century rugs from Egypt, Spanish carpets, early Islamic textiles, pre-Columbian Peruvian textiles, Anatolian rugs, and more.

The Textile Museum’s final exhibition, Out of Southeast Asia: Art that Sustains will be on view through October 13 and the museum’s historic buildings will remain open through the holiday season.

On June 5, 2013 at Sotheby’s New York the Corcoran Gallery of Art auctioned 25 rugs from its William A. Clark Collection. The rugs, which are from the 16^th and 17^th centuries, brought in $43.7 million, over four times the pre-sale high estimate of $9.6 million, making it the most successful carpet auction ever held. 100% of the lots sold and the auction achieved “White Glove” status, meaning every lot in the sale garnered more than it’s pre-sale high estimate.

The highlight of the auction was the Clark Sickle-Leaf Carpet. An important and iconic rug created by an unknown Persian artist during the first half of the 17^th century, the rarely exhibited piece was expected to garner between $5 million and $7 million. The carpet ended up selling for $33.7 million, the highest price paid for any carpet at auction. Mary Jo Otsea, the senior consultant for rugs and carpets at Sotheby’s said, “Selling the Clark Sickle-Leaf Carpet for a record-breaking price of more than three times the previous auction record for a carpet has unquestionably been the highlight of my 30 year career. It is gratifying to see the strength of the market for carpets of this quality and rarity.”

The rugs were part of a bequest from William Clark (1839-1925), a Montana-based entrepreneur-turned-senator, to the Corcoran in 1925. The gift was comprised of 200 paintings and drawings and a number of other works, including the rugs. The Corcoran will use the proceeds from the sale to support future acquisitions that will better fit the institution’s focus on American and contemporary art. While the Corcoran has endured recent financial troubles, the money will not be used for operating expenses in keeping with its deaccession policy.

On June 5, 2013 the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. will auction 25 rugs from its William A. Clark Collection at Sotheby’s New York. The rugs, which are from the 16^th and 17^th centuries, are estimated to bring as much as $9.6 million.

The rugs were part of a bequest from William Clark (1839-1925), a Montana-based billionaire entrepreneur-turned-senator, to the Corcoran in 1925. The gift was comprised of 200 paintings and drawings and a number of other works, including the rugs.

The Corcoran will use the proceeds from the sale to support future acquisitions that will better fit the institution’s focus on American and contemporary art. While the Corcoran has endured recent financial troubles, the money will not be used for operating expenses in keeping with its deaccession policy.

Highlights from the Corcoran sale include the Clark Sickle-Leaf Carpet, which is expected to garner between $5 million and $7 million. An unknown Persian artist created the rug during the first half of the 17^th century possibly for the shah. The rarely exhibited Sickle-Leaf is one of the most iconic and important carpets to appear at auction. Another rug known as the Lafoes Carpet, which measures 44 feet long, is expected to bring between $800,000 and $1.2 million.