Bellwether Year for Interest in Islamic Art Increases Demand for Antique Oriental Carpets

ART DAILY

Bakshaish Tree of Life, 9ft 6in x 12ft 6in, circa 1850.  

CALIFORNIA---A confluence of events over the past two years has created an increased enthusiasm for collecting Islamic Art, according to Jan David Winitz, eminent art dealer and president of Claremont Rug Company. Citing the late 2011 opening of Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new gallery of Islamic Art as the key event, he said that art collectors have intensified their interest in rugs from the “Second Golden Age of Persian Weaving,” generally recognized as the period ca 1800 to ca 1910. In 2012, Winitz pointed to opening of a major permanent exhibit at the Louvre. As well, he noted an important Islamic art collection newly on display at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and another soon to be opened at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He also noted that this year the de Young Museum in San Francisco began to display kilim rugs from its extensive collection of antique Oriental carpets for the first time in two decades.  [link]