RugNotes: Saturday, July 03, 2004: "Saturday, July 03, 2004
SOUTHWEST ASIA: Tanavoli: Statues of "Nil" Contradict Western Understanding
SOUTHWEST ASIA:
Tanavoli: Statues of "Nil" Contradict Western Understanding
TEHRAN July 3 (MNA) -– The twist word of "nil" is derived from socio-political issues that Parviz Tanavoli, the Iranian sculptor, has applied in his works associated with mystery.
Tanavoli feels that his statues of "nil" are symbols and signs of life in the Iranian mysticism and do not bear any relationship with despair and hopelessness.
The 67-year-old Tanavoli, creating works entitled: "nil" which from the viewpoint of form, concept and style are purely Iranian, started his profession in early 1970's."
Friday, November 25, 2005
RugNotes: Parviz Tanavoli The Great Iranian Artist Among Near East Invitees to the British Museum
RugNotes: Sunday, June 12, 2005: "Sunday, June 12, 2005
Parviz Tanavoli The Great Iranian Sculpture Among Near East Invitees to the British Museum
CHN - News: "Iranian Sculpture Among Near East Invitees to the British Museum
The exact date of the exhibition is yet to be confirmed by the British Museum, but Tanavoli has already started preparing for the event.
Tehran, 12 June 2005 (CHN) – Sculptures of Parviz Tanavoli, one of Iran’s best-known sculptures, is among works invited to the British Museum for an exhibition of works by artists of the Near East since the emergence of Islam in the region up to this day.
The exact date of the exhibition is yet to be confirmed by the British Museum, but Tanavoli, who is the only artist alive presenting works in the exhibition, has already started preparing for the event.
“Using all my potentials, I have started to create works suitable for the exhibition. My sculptures are to be showcased along a collection of art works from one thousand years ago to this day, therefore, they should well represent the value of the works of the Iranian artists of the old days,” Tanavoli told CHN.
Born in 1937, the Iranian sculptor, painter, art historian and collector, Tanavoli graduated in 1956 in sculpting from the College of Fine Arts of Tehran University. He then left for Italy to continue his studies in sculpting in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Carrara (1956–7) and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan (1958–9), where he worked under Marino Marini. He furthermore took some sculpting courses in England. In the 1960s he contributed to the art movement in Iran known as SAQQAKHANA, and he made sculptures that were reminiscent of religious shrines and objects. Pairs of figures and fantastic birds were also common subjects. Themes from classical Persian literature also influenced him. He frequently rendered the word Hich (nothing) as a sculpture in calligraphic form, using the word on a small scale for rings and on a large scale for sculptures.
Tanavoli exhibited his work widely and received commissions from all over the world. He taught at art colleges and universities in Iran and the USA, retiring from his position of professor of sculpture at Tehran University in 1981. As an art historian he wrote books and articles on Iranian art, especially rugs and textiles."
"
Parviz Tanavoli The Great Iranian Sculpture Among Near East Invitees to the British Museum
CHN - News: "Iranian Sculpture Among Near East Invitees to the British Museum
The exact date of the exhibition is yet to be confirmed by the British Museum, but Tanavoli has already started preparing for the event.
Tehran, 12 June 2005 (CHN) – Sculptures of Parviz Tanavoli, one of Iran’s best-known sculptures, is among works invited to the British Museum for an exhibition of works by artists of the Near East since the emergence of Islam in the region up to this day.
The exact date of the exhibition is yet to be confirmed by the British Museum, but Tanavoli, who is the only artist alive presenting works in the exhibition, has already started preparing for the event.
“Using all my potentials, I have started to create works suitable for the exhibition. My sculptures are to be showcased along a collection of art works from one thousand years ago to this day, therefore, they should well represent the value of the works of the Iranian artists of the old days,” Tanavoli told CHN.
Born in 1937, the Iranian sculptor, painter, art historian and collector, Tanavoli graduated in 1956 in sculpting from the College of Fine Arts of Tehran University. He then left for Italy to continue his studies in sculpting in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Carrara (1956–7) and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan (1958–9), where he worked under Marino Marini. He furthermore took some sculpting courses in England. In the 1960s he contributed to the art movement in Iran known as SAQQAKHANA, and he made sculptures that were reminiscent of religious shrines and objects. Pairs of figures and fantastic birds were also common subjects. Themes from classical Persian literature also influenced him. He frequently rendered the word Hich (nothing) as a sculpture in calligraphic form, using the word on a small scale for rings and on a large scale for sculptures.
Tanavoli exhibited his work widely and received commissions from all over the world. He taught at art colleges and universities in Iran and the USA, retiring from his position of professor of sculpture at Tehran University in 1981. As an art historian he wrote books and articles on Iranian art, especially rugs and textiles."
"
RugNotes: Tanavoli, Aghdashlu to discuss status of art in Iran at Oxford
RugNotes: Monday, June 13, 2005: "Tanavoli, Aghdashlu to discuss status of art in Iran at Oxford
Tanavoli, Aghdashlu to discuss status of art in Iran at Oxford: "Tanavoli, Aghdashlu to discuss status of art in Iran at Oxford
TEHRAN, June 13 (MNA) -- Iranian artists Parviz Tanavoli and Aidin Aghdashlu are to deliver lectures during an international conference which will be surveying the status of Iranian art since the victory of the Islamic Revolution at the University of Oxford from July 11 to July 13.
“I will give a speech on the status of art, particularly sculpture, over about 27 years since the Islamic Revolution at this conference, which will be attended by many Iranologists from around the world. I will also preside over a round table at this cultural event,” Tanavoli said on Monday.
The British Museum also plans to display the latest works of Tanavoli in an exhibition of Islamic art of the Near East in the near future.
Tanavoli, 68, is famous for a series of "nil" statues, which are symbols of life in Iranian mysticism from his point of view.
His works are currently installed in front of Tehran’s City Theater, Laleh Park, and City Park and in museums and open areas in South Korea, the United States, Austria, and Germany.
Painter and graphic designer Aghdashlu is also scheduled to deliver a speech at the conference.
“I have recently finished my research on the subject of my lecture, which is the visual arts since (the victory of) the Islamic Revolution,” said Aghdashlu.
The 65-year-old artist is now preparing for a retrospective on his 40-year career as a graphic designer and painter, which the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art will hold later this year.
A number of Aghdashlu’s works are part of the collections of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, the Niavaran Palace in Tehran, and several other galleries and museums. A few of his artworks are also in private collections.
Except for his individual exhibitions in 1975 and 1997, his works have never been displayed in any other exhibition in Iran because of his “bad experience at those two times”""
Tanavoli, Aghdashlu to discuss status of art in Iran at Oxford: "Tanavoli, Aghdashlu to discuss status of art in Iran at Oxford
TEHRAN, June 13 (MNA) -- Iranian artists Parviz Tanavoli and Aidin Aghdashlu are to deliver lectures during an international conference which will be surveying the status of Iranian art since the victory of the Islamic Revolution at the University of Oxford from July 11 to July 13.
“I will give a speech on the status of art, particularly sculpture, over about 27 years since the Islamic Revolution at this conference, which will be attended by many Iranologists from around the world. I will also preside over a round table at this cultural event,” Tanavoli said on Monday.
The British Museum also plans to display the latest works of Tanavoli in an exhibition of Islamic art of the Near East in the near future.
Tanavoli, 68, is famous for a series of "nil" statues, which are symbols of life in Iranian mysticism from his point of view.
His works are currently installed in front of Tehran’s City Theater, Laleh Park, and City Park and in museums and open areas in South Korea, the United States, Austria, and Germany.
Painter and graphic designer Aghdashlu is also scheduled to deliver a speech at the conference.
“I have recently finished my research on the subject of my lecture, which is the visual arts since (the victory of) the Islamic Revolution,” said Aghdashlu.
The 65-year-old artist is now preparing for a retrospective on his 40-year career as a graphic designer and painter, which the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art will hold later this year.
A number of Aghdashlu’s works are part of the collections of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, the Niavaran Palace in Tehran, and several other galleries and museums. A few of his artworks are also in private collections.
Except for his individual exhibitions in 1975 and 1997, his works have never been displayed in any other exhibition in Iran because of his “bad experience at those two times”""
RugNotes: Iran News - Iran's Tanavoli sculptures at British Museum
RugNotes: Iran News - Iran's Tanavoli sculptures at British Museum: "Iran News - Iran's Tanavoli sculptures at British Museum
Iran News - Iran's Tanavoli sculptures at British Museum: "Iran's Tanavoli sculptures at British Museum
Monday, June 13, 2005 - ©2005 IranMania.com
LONDON, June 13 (IranMania) - Sculptures by Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli will be put on display in an exhibition of Islamic art of the Near East at the British Museum, although no date has been set for the event, MNA reported.
The artist said that his sculptures will be showcased in a collection of works by artists of the last 1000 years, adding, “So my works must focus on the value of Iranian artists of the past.”
Tanavoli is the only living artist from the Middle East whose works will be put on display at the exhibition.
He has created new works for the exhibition, but gave no additional information on them.
Tanavoli, who studied fine art and sculpture in Iran and Italy, also paints, makes ceramic works, and weaves carpets. He is famous for his bronze sculpture works.
His statues of "nil" are symbols of life in Iranian mysticism.
Tanavoli feels that his statues of "nil" or "nothing" are purely Iranian in terms of form, concept, and style and do not represent despair and hopelessness.
His works are currently installed in front of Tehran’s City Theater, Laleh Park, and City Park and in museums and open areas in South Korea, the United States, Austria, and Germany.""
Iran News - Iran's Tanavoli sculptures at British Museum: "Iran's Tanavoli sculptures at British Museum
Monday, June 13, 2005 - ©2005 IranMania.com
LONDON, June 13 (IranMania) - Sculptures by Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli will be put on display in an exhibition of Islamic art of the Near East at the British Museum, although no date has been set for the event, MNA reported.
The artist said that his sculptures will be showcased in a collection of works by artists of the last 1000 years, adding, “So my works must focus on the value of Iranian artists of the past.”
Tanavoli is the only living artist from the Middle East whose works will be put on display at the exhibition.
He has created new works for the exhibition, but gave no additional information on them.
Tanavoli, who studied fine art and sculpture in Iran and Italy, also paints, makes ceramic works, and weaves carpets. He is famous for his bronze sculpture works.
His statues of "nil" are symbols of life in Iranian mysticism.
Tanavoli feels that his statues of "nil" or "nothing" are purely Iranian in terms of form, concept, and style and do not represent despair and hopelessness.
His works are currently installed in front of Tehran’s City Theater, Laleh Park, and City Park and in museums and open areas in South Korea, the United States, Austria, and Germany.""
RugNotes: Court rules in favor of The Tanavoli Museum
"Court rules in favor of The Tanavoli Museum
Court rules in favor of Tanavoli: "Tehran: 17:04 , 2005/07/03 Print version Email this to a friend
Court rules in favor of Tanavoli
TEHRAN, July 3 (MNA) -- The Tehran Administrative Court of Justice recently ruled that the house of contemporary sculptor Parviz Tanavoli is a residential house and not a garden.
“I am happy to hear such news,” Tanavoli said on Sunday.
In 2004, the Tehran City Council had declared that the house was a garden and could not be converted into a museum.
Tanavoli said that the city council wanted to close the museum and that is why they had made the ruling.
“Several times I asked the chairman of the city council to visit the museum, which was called the Tanavoli Museum, but he refused all the invitations and never paid a visit to the museum.
“I believe no external factor was a threat to the trees of the house. My wife and I built the house and planted the trees and are taking care of them like our children. But now their fate is unknown, and I wonder what will happen to them after my death. I am afraid they will demolish the house some day and build a huge building in its place.”
The Tanavoli Museum opened in May 2003, but the Tehran City Council ordered it closed the next year due to alleged zoning violations.""
Court rules in favor of Tanavoli: "Tehran: 17:04 , 2005/07/03 Print version Email this to a friend
Court rules in favor of Tanavoli
TEHRAN, July 3 (MNA) -- The Tehran Administrative Court of Justice recently ruled that the house of contemporary sculptor Parviz Tanavoli is a residential house and not a garden.
“I am happy to hear such news,” Tanavoli said on Sunday.
In 2004, the Tehran City Council had declared that the house was a garden and could not be converted into a museum.
Tanavoli said that the city council wanted to close the museum and that is why they had made the ruling.
“Several times I asked the chairman of the city council to visit the museum, which was called the Tanavoli Museum, but he refused all the invitations and never paid a visit to the museum.
“I believe no external factor was a threat to the trees of the house. My wife and I built the house and planted the trees and are taking care of them like our children. But now their fate is unknown, and I wonder what will happen to them after my death. I am afraid they will demolish the house some day and build a huge building in its place.”
The Tanavoli Museum opened in May 2003, but the Tehran City Council ordered it closed the next year due to alleged zoning violations.""
RugNotes: Oliver Hoare Limited of London helped Sheikh Saud embezzle 16 Million from the Emir of Qatar - No Mention of Frances in this Article
RugNotes: "Oliver Hoare Limited of London helped Sheikh Saud embezzle 16 Million from the Emir of Qatar - No Mention of Michael Frances in this Article
For more on Frances see
Michael Frances Speaks out in the Sheikh Saud Scandal
The Art Newspaper -- News: "Revealed: how Sheikh Saud embezzled millions from his cousin the Emir of Qatar
Sheikh Saud Al-Thani, who is being investigated for misuse of public funds, used vastly inflated invoices issued by Islamic art dealer Oliver Hoare to defraud the State of Qatar
By The Art Newspaper‘s correspondents
LONDON. Sheikh Saud Al-Thani, the world’s biggest collector, embezzled millions of pounds from the State of Qatar using invoices issued by London dealer Oliver Hoare. The Sheikh, who has been under investigation for misappropriating public funds, used documents bearing the letterhead of Mr Hoare’s company, Oliver Hoare Limited, to obtain fraudulent payments from Qatar’s National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage (NCCAH) while serving as its chairman.
Last month we revealed that three invoices issued in 2002 by Mr Hoare’s company to Sheikh Saud showed an extraordinarily large mark-up on the recent auction price of the objects they related to. Further investigations have revealed that these invoices were used as part of a scam to obtain Qatari State money.
The surprise is that Sheikh Saud, who was arrested in February, was already the owner of the three items covered by Mr Hoare’s documents: a 17th-century jade pendant made for Shah Jahan, a 217-carat Mughal carved emerald, and an 18th-century diamond and emerald turban ornament.
The Art Newspaper has established that the Sheikh, a cousin of the Emir of Qatar, bought the objects at Christie’s and Sotheby’s for just over £3.3 million in September and October 2001. On 6 August 2002 Mr Hoare issued his invoices to Sheikh Saud for the three items. These show a price inflation of nearly £16 million to a cumulative total of just over £19 million.
The three objects these invoices relate to are now in the collection of the NCCAH which sent two of them on loan to an exhibition in Frankfurt earlier this year. We understand that the established procedure for all items acquired by the Qatari State is that they are paid for before they are formally admitted into the collections, so Mr Hoare’s invoices were presumably settled.
Oliver Hoare’s exact role in the affair remains unclear. He did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Oliver Hoare Limited is a small company and is only required to publish abbreviated accounts at Companies House. An examination of these shows that the £19 million referred to in the invoices does not appear to have been included in the accounts for the appropriate period.
A considerable number of other invoices issued to the Sheikh by Mr Hoare are now being examined by investigators in Qatar as part of the official enquiry into the Sheikh’s spending. Auditors are also looking at paperwork submitted by other dealers in London and Paris.
One London dealer who spoke to The Art Newspaper on condition of anonymity said that Sheikh Saud had asked him to produce a fraudulent invoice for one object. He refused.
Sheikh Saud served as chairman of the NCCAH from 1997 until he was abruptly dismissed in February. During that time he was responsible for purchasing art for five museums planned for the capital Doha. He simultaneously bought for his own collection, by some estimates spending a total of nearly $1 billion in the process.
The investigation into Sheikh Saud’s spending began last summer. In February Qatari auditors confronted the Sheikh in his London home. The Art Newspaper understands that when presented with the evidence they had accumulated, the Sheikh confessed to financial misdealings. The Emir was immediately notified and he promptly dismissed his cousin from the NCCAH. A few days later the Sheikh voluntarily returned to Qatar and was arrested upon arrival at the airport.
The Sheikh remained in prison for just over two months but is now believed to have been released. The Art Newspaper understands that he is unlikely to be charged and has probably struck a deal with the Emir to avoid further prosecution. This may involve the transfer of parts of the Sheikh’s extensive private collection to the ownership of the NCCAH.
After the Sheikh’s arrest, his personal holdings of art were impounded both in London, where they were moved to the Qatari Embassy in South Audley Street, and in Qatar, where they have been transferred from Al-Wabra, the Sheikh’s family estate outside Doha, to NCCAH warehouses.
Sheikh Saud could not be contacted at his London address or his family estate at Al Wabra. No one at the Qatari Embassy in London or the NCCAH was available for comment.
The Art Newspaper estimates on good evidence that Sheikh Saud’s eccentric and diverse personal collection is worth around $450 million. It includes: an exceptional group of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities such as the Jenkins Venus bought for £7.9 million, setting a new world record price for an antiquity; a library of natural history books and manuscripts described by one expert as “the best in the world” which includes a first edition of Audubon’s Birds of America, bought for $8.8 million; a large collection of jewellery and decorative art with objects such as the Winter Egg by Fabergé, a 60-carat Indian diamond from the Golconda mines, and armour originally made for the French king Henry IV; Art Deco furniture designed by Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann that belonged to the Maharaja of Indore; a collection of dinosaur skeletons, fossils, and taxidermied rare birds; an extensive collection of photographs; textiles, mainly Coptic; a collection of luxury cars, and one of the largest private holdings of bicycles in the world.
The Sheikh also owns contemporary art including a sculpture by Anish Kapoor and watercolour portraits of himself by David Hockney as well as 50 drawings of Egypt by the British artist.
The newly appointed chairman of the NCCAH, Dr Mohammed Kafoud, has now instructed his curators to inventory the collections in their care. Dr Kafoud’s priority is to document both the State collections amassed by Sheikh Saud and his private holdings, and to distinguish between the two.
Our revelations of the Sheikh’s financial misdealings have divided the London art world. Many dealers who have sold work to the Sheikh insist that he is the victim of a smear campaign.
Clients of Mr Hoare defend him. Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Kjeld von Folsach, director of the David Collection, a museum in Copenhagen said: “For years it was difficult to buy at auction and we mainly worked with important dealers of Islamic art, among them Oliver Hoare, with whom our institution has had a fine cooperation for 25 years. We consider him one of the most serious dealers in the Islamic field.”""
For more on Frances see
Michael Frances Speaks out in the Sheikh Saud Scandal
The Art Newspaper -- News: "Revealed: how Sheikh Saud embezzled millions from his cousin the Emir of Qatar
Sheikh Saud Al-Thani, who is being investigated for misuse of public funds, used vastly inflated invoices issued by Islamic art dealer Oliver Hoare to defraud the State of Qatar
By The Art Newspaper‘s correspondents
LONDON. Sheikh Saud Al-Thani, the world’s biggest collector, embezzled millions of pounds from the State of Qatar using invoices issued by London dealer Oliver Hoare. The Sheikh, who has been under investigation for misappropriating public funds, used documents bearing the letterhead of Mr Hoare’s company, Oliver Hoare Limited, to obtain fraudulent payments from Qatar’s National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage (NCCAH) while serving as its chairman.
Last month we revealed that three invoices issued in 2002 by Mr Hoare’s company to Sheikh Saud showed an extraordinarily large mark-up on the recent auction price of the objects they related to. Further investigations have revealed that these invoices were used as part of a scam to obtain Qatari State money.
The surprise is that Sheikh Saud, who was arrested in February, was already the owner of the three items covered by Mr Hoare’s documents: a 17th-century jade pendant made for Shah Jahan, a 217-carat Mughal carved emerald, and an 18th-century diamond and emerald turban ornament.
The Art Newspaper has established that the Sheikh, a cousin of the Emir of Qatar, bought the objects at Christie’s and Sotheby’s for just over £3.3 million in September and October 2001. On 6 August 2002 Mr Hoare issued his invoices to Sheikh Saud for the three items. These show a price inflation of nearly £16 million to a cumulative total of just over £19 million.
The three objects these invoices relate to are now in the collection of the NCCAH which sent two of them on loan to an exhibition in Frankfurt earlier this year. We understand that the established procedure for all items acquired by the Qatari State is that they are paid for before they are formally admitted into the collections, so Mr Hoare’s invoices were presumably settled.
Oliver Hoare’s exact role in the affair remains unclear. He did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Oliver Hoare Limited is a small company and is only required to publish abbreviated accounts at Companies House. An examination of these shows that the £19 million referred to in the invoices does not appear to have been included in the accounts for the appropriate period.
A considerable number of other invoices issued to the Sheikh by Mr Hoare are now being examined by investigators in Qatar as part of the official enquiry into the Sheikh’s spending. Auditors are also looking at paperwork submitted by other dealers in London and Paris.
One London dealer who spoke to The Art Newspaper on condition of anonymity said that Sheikh Saud had asked him to produce a fraudulent invoice for one object. He refused.
Sheikh Saud served as chairman of the NCCAH from 1997 until he was abruptly dismissed in February. During that time he was responsible for purchasing art for five museums planned for the capital Doha. He simultaneously bought for his own collection, by some estimates spending a total of nearly $1 billion in the process.
The investigation into Sheikh Saud’s spending began last summer. In February Qatari auditors confronted the Sheikh in his London home. The Art Newspaper understands that when presented with the evidence they had accumulated, the Sheikh confessed to financial misdealings. The Emir was immediately notified and he promptly dismissed his cousin from the NCCAH. A few days later the Sheikh voluntarily returned to Qatar and was arrested upon arrival at the airport.
The Sheikh remained in prison for just over two months but is now believed to have been released. The Art Newspaper understands that he is unlikely to be charged and has probably struck a deal with the Emir to avoid further prosecution. This may involve the transfer of parts of the Sheikh’s extensive private collection to the ownership of the NCCAH.
After the Sheikh’s arrest, his personal holdings of art were impounded both in London, where they were moved to the Qatari Embassy in South Audley Street, and in Qatar, where they have been transferred from Al-Wabra, the Sheikh’s family estate outside Doha, to NCCAH warehouses.
Sheikh Saud could not be contacted at his London address or his family estate at Al Wabra. No one at the Qatari Embassy in London or the NCCAH was available for comment.
The Art Newspaper estimates on good evidence that Sheikh Saud’s eccentric and diverse personal collection is worth around $450 million. It includes: an exceptional group of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities such as the Jenkins Venus bought for £7.9 million, setting a new world record price for an antiquity; a library of natural history books and manuscripts described by one expert as “the best in the world” which includes a first edition of Audubon’s Birds of America, bought for $8.8 million; a large collection of jewellery and decorative art with objects such as the Winter Egg by Fabergé, a 60-carat Indian diamond from the Golconda mines, and armour originally made for the French king Henry IV; Art Deco furniture designed by Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann that belonged to the Maharaja of Indore; a collection of dinosaur skeletons, fossils, and taxidermied rare birds; an extensive collection of photographs; textiles, mainly Coptic; a collection of luxury cars, and one of the largest private holdings of bicycles in the world.
The Sheikh also owns contemporary art including a sculpture by Anish Kapoor and watercolour portraits of himself by David Hockney as well as 50 drawings of Egypt by the British artist.
The newly appointed chairman of the NCCAH, Dr Mohammed Kafoud, has now instructed his curators to inventory the collections in their care. Dr Kafoud’s priority is to document both the State collections amassed by Sheikh Saud and his private holdings, and to distinguish between the two.
Our revelations of the Sheikh’s financial misdealings have divided the London art world. Many dealers who have sold work to the Sheikh insist that he is the victim of a smear campaign.
Clients of Mr Hoare defend him. Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Kjeld von Folsach, director of the David Collection, a museum in Copenhagen said: “For years it was difficult to buy at auction and we mainly worked with important dealers of Islamic art, among them Oliver Hoare, with whom our institution has had a fine cooperation for 25 years. We consider him one of the most serious dealers in the Islamic field.”""
RugNotes: The Michael Franses Puff Piece - Forbes.com Lifestyle
RugNotes: "The Michael Franses Puff Piece - Forbes.com Lifestyle
Forbes.com Lifestyle: "Finest Galleries
The Textile Gallery
Anyone curious about the difference between a good street-corner rug dealer and the Mount Olympus of high art dealing in priceless textiles need look no further than The Textile Gallery in London's Mayfair quarter. Michael Franses owns and runs the gallery which he founded in 1975 with Jacqueline Franses, his wife and business partner.
For the cognoscenti it's enough just to say that, in the 1970s, Michael Franses was also co-founder and publisher of Hali, the scholarly textile magazine and bible of the industry. What that means, in layman's terms, is that Franses simply knows everything there is to know about the quality, rarity and esthetics of any genre of antique textile the world has produced. He has placed carpets in top museum collections, from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to London's Victoria and Albert Museum to Tehran's Carpet Museum. When a Gulf state emir wants to build a collection, Franses is often his first choice.
The Textile Gallery is not a place where you go to bargain over carpets. Instead, the buyer knows that any piece Franses shows has a place in history, an irreproachable pedigree and market recognition that justifies the price. This means that in the area, say, of Chinese carpets, anything you see came likely as not from the Imperial Palace in Beijing.
In a less documented genre such as the Central Asian suzani, the silk-on-cotton embroideries from the Khanates of what is now Uzbekistan, Franses' eye is documentation enough. Indeed, he is often credited with inventing the market in suzanis, which can now sell at Christie's and Sotheby's auctions for tens of thousands of dollars. His exhibition of suzanis at Sotheby's New York in September 2000 featured several valued at $40,000 and higher.
Similarly, Franses is credited with introducing the Caucasian kaytak to the world in the mid-1990s. Until he marketed them, nobody knew their regional and esthetic differentiations, their genres, motifs, dating or value.
Though Franses' business is focused chiefly on Asian textiles from Turkey to China, he has at times also dealt in top European genres and in other objects such as antique Chinese furniture. Franses runs two related businesses: Longevity, his textile cleaning and maintenance company, services high-quality fragile and rare pieces; and his publishing company, Textile & Art Publications, produces very fine coffee-table art books in his discipline.
The publishing company acts as an extension of his missionary zeal in educating people about his passionate love of textiles. Sometimes he jokes that he hasn't produced this or that book on an obscure textile because he "doesn't like to give information to the competition." In truth, he's often too busy. He's constantly contributing scholarly articles to Hali and organizing exhibitions at museums worldwide. Franses is famously quoted as saying that he "was conceived on a rug." After meeting him, one almost believes it is true. -- Melik Kaylan"
posted by JBOC @ 7:38 AM 0 comments
Did the Ring Rape Sheikh Saud While he Cheated His Cousin the Emir - Michael Franses is Quoted
The World's Biggest Art Collector - Forbes.com:
Connoisseur's Guide
The World's Biggest Art Collector
Georgina Adams for The Art Newspaper
Just before the Maastricht fair opened last month, as all the dealers stood ready and waiting at their stands, one slender, bespectacled buyer was given a special early tour, guided by a fair trustee. As he examined a 16th-century cabinet here, an antiquity or a tribal mask there, whispers followed his passage through the stands, because every dealer knew who he was: Sheikh Saud Al Thani, cousin of the Emir of Qatar, the world's most active collector of art and the market's biggest spender.
For the past decade, Sheikh Saud has moved through the market like a whirlwind, collecting voraciously in a huge range of fields. He has purchased textiles, Egyptian antiquities, natural history prints, precious stones, jewelry, fossils, narwhal tusks, entire libraries, photographs and vintage cameras, Roman antiquities, art-deco furniture, statues, vintage cars, antique bicycles and 18th-century French furniture, with much more besides.
He is not collecting for himself: most of the art is destined for museums planned in Doha, the capital of the tiny, fabulously rich emirate of Qatar. In a few years, if all goes according to plan, the city will become a cultural and educational hub for the whole of the Gulf area with at least five new museums, all designed by world-famous architects such as I.M. Pei and Santiago Calatrava. As President of Qatar's National Council for Culture, Arts and the Heritage, Sheikh Saud is responsible for building the collections of these museums. The resources and the political will are there: only the sheer administrative burden of undertaking so much at once could hamper progress.
Until now, little was known about the museum program, except for the names of the architects. What was going into them remained a mystery, even if every time a huge price is paid at auction, the Sheikh is inevitably identified as the probable buyer.
There have been some peeks behind the veil: in the last three years, a selection of pieces from the future Museum of Islamic Art has been shown during the Doha Cultural Festival. This year, the small but exquisite "Silk and ivory" exhibition in Doha displayed 32 items and provided a sneak preview of the quality of the work that will be on show when the museum opens. At the same time, the detailed plans for five museums were revealed.
It was during a visit to "Silk and ivory," that I met Sheikh Saud, at Al Wabra, the family's desert estate some 30 minutes from Doha. Set in the flat rock-and-sand plain that makes up the Qatari peninsular. Al Wabra has been transformed by the Sheikh into an animal conservation centre. In it he is breeding endangered wildlife, particularly birds and gazelles. An animal hospital, lecture centre and accommodation for the 120 staff are being built on the premises.
Middle Eastern rulers have traditionally had menageries of gazelles, cheetahs and antelopes, but the Sheikh's estate is no hobby, rather a sustained program: he also funds conservation programs in other parts of the world. He even got shot at when venturing into war-torn Somalia on a mission to save the Beria antelopes, which are facing extinction. He managed to bring back nine of the beautiful, doe-eyed beasts to Qatar.
The day I visit is a Friday, and as the muezzin calls to prayer, the jackals trotting around in their pens start to bark. Storks, peacocks and guinea fowl range on the lawns around the house, which retains a domestic feel, with children's climbing frames outside. The Sheikh, who is in his late 30s, is married with three children.
He is the first cousin of the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who came to power in 1995 after deposing his father in a bloodless coup. Sheikh Hamad has brought new, progressive thinking into his small State. Qatar is a country where the Emir holds absolute power, so the oil and gas revenues can be used as he wishes--l'état, c'est lui--and sits between the modern world, with its rigid organization, and the personal nature of the tribal world. With ultra-commercial Dubai on one side and the deeply conservative Saudi Arabia on another, Qatar has chosen a third way, that of education and culture. The Emir's wife, Sheikha Mouzah, heads the Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.
Dignified, reserved but pleasant, Sheikh Saud is dressed in traditional Arab costume, a long white robe, its cuffs held by simple silver links: he wears a white headdress with black bands and, from time to time, plays with coral worry beads. One might have expected this feverish collector, involved in a storm of projects, to be impatient. On the contrary: he seems calm and unhurried. Educated in Doha and Egypt, he is entirely self-taught in art history. However, dealers in a range of fields are unanimous: despite his lack of formal training, the Sheikh has an extraordinary visual memory and considerable knowledge as well as an excellent "eye." "He has learned more in two years than many learn in 15," says one antiquities dealer.
I ask Sheikh Saud why he is building so many museums. "His Highness the Emir is changing many things, particularly in the cultural and educational fields, even in entertainment," he replies. "He wants his people to understand, when they go to a museum, what is good or bad, what is old and new. He does not want a museum to be academic, but a place to enjoy. Here in Qatar, we are poor in history. We don't have our own Islamic pieces like Egypt or Turkey, so we collect Islamic art across the board. For the government, the target is to improve culture. Step by step, we want to become a very cultivated city."
His motto could be "nothing but the best," and this is evident in all his decisions, from the architects he has chosen to the works he has bought. "I go by masterpieces," he says. "Pieces from an important church, a major family, a great collection, these really interest me, they have history and provenance. You get them in the best possible condition, and there are no problems of authenticity." He continues: "I want visitors to see the very best, or nothing at all. This is a way of ensuring that my successor will have to collect at the same level, I will set the standard." His reference to a successor, for a man not yet 40, hints at a feeling that he must achieve a lot very quickly, and at a fear that his work will not be continued. He has often said that what he is trying to achieve will not be understood in his lifetime.
To achieve his gold he has surrounded himself with advisors. These include curators such as Oliver Watson, from the Islamic Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and Hubert Bari, from the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, who are already living in Doha. "Our target is great quality, and first you have to judge this with your eyes." says the Sheikh. "Afterwards, for authenticity and provenance, then you need advice, and we have curators and sources we can call on."
One is Michael Franses, the London-based textile dealer who curated "Silk and ivory." Mr. Franses recounts how Sheikh Saud asked him for lists of the greatest pieces in private collections, and then flew to see each owner and attempted to buy the pieces, sometimes with success. The Sheikh has swallowed whole collections, such as the Bokelberg group of historical photographs, for an estimated $15 million, and the Spira collection of vintage cameras.
But it is in the saleroom that Sheikh Saud has had the biggest impact, even if he is rarely identified as a buyer. He admits that he can get carried away with auction fever, and when he wants something, he has paid extraordinary sums well over the odds.
"He is sometimes very enthusiastic in a sale, and it is not always clear who could be underbidding," says one dealer. He spent $6 million buying half the lots at the Jammes auction of photography in London in 1999, paying £507,000 for Gustave Le Gray's "Grande vague à Sète." In Paris, he swooped on Coptic textiles and Iznik ceramics being sold from the Kelekian collection at Drouot. Two major pieces of Western Islamic metalwork, a 10th-century Cordoba hind which sold for £3.6 million in 1997, and the peacock sold last year for £900,000, are his, as is the rediscovered Renaissance roundel which made £7.9 million at Christie's last December. He also bought Audubon's Birds of America from the collection of the Marquis of Bute at Christie's New York in 2000 for $8.8 million; Redouté's "Les roses" and the earliest text written in Arabic; and much, much more. "I don't feel I have to compete for every object," he says, "but when a great work of art comes up for sale, it's never too expensive. I lost one object in terms of price, and now it has gone somewhere else, and I shall never get it."
Some of his collections are stored in a series of warehouses at the estate. Visiting these buildings, packed floor to ceiling, is a remarkable experience, as one wanders through the extraordinary Kunstkammer this modern-day Medici has accumulated. A statue from an English stately home stands next to a Benin bronze, while propped beside them is the third-century BC Roman glass bowl with tangent rings, one of the best pieces of Roman glass in the world, sold by the British Rail Pension Fund at Sotheby's in 1997. (Bidding anonymously, Sheikh Saud acquired 11 pieces in the sale.) Auction tags still hang from many pieces, and dealers' labels are propped alongside others.
Hanging on the wall is a Sassanian lion carpet in astonishingly good condition, its colors as bright as the day it was woven. Egyptian antiquities line the shelves: Sheikh Saud is passionate about the 18th dynasty and Akhenaten, the pharaoh to whom he bears a startling resemblance. Egyptian specialists say his knowledge of the dynasty is remarkable.
Turn a corner and you stumble upon Boutet de Monvel's painting of the Maharajah of Indore, another influence on the Sheikh. It hangs above the Maharajah's Art Deco bed, between two colossal bookcases, also by Ruhlmann. He has many other art deco pieces from the Maharajah's palace (the contents of which were sold at auction in 1980), and they are reportedly destined for the futuristic palace Arata Isozaki has designed for him as a home. A scale model of the building sits on the floor of the warehouse: resembling a silver flying saucer, it has a long ramp curving around the whole structure and leading to glass boxes on the top, where cars and other items will be displayed. Beneath a glass dome is a swimming pool which the sheikh has asked the artist David Hockney to design.
There is a whole store of natural history specimens, notably fossils of very high quality, petrified tree trunks and even a complete dinosaur skeleton. The Sheikh also has a collection of precious stones as good as the Sultan of Brunei's.
A climate-controlled room holds the natural history library, which specialists say is as good as any in the world and which cost $250 million alone. Sheikh Saud went head-to-head with the French State over the 18th-century Traité général des pesches, an illustrated manuscript of absolute rarity, which he bought for some £500,000 at auction in France. It was then denied an export license by the French government and it is probable that it will go on long-term loan to a French museum. I ask the Sheikh if he has had other problems with export. "I try to avoid them," he replies, "I would not go for something that might not be exportable, or if there is a subsequent difficulty I give the work to the country. I just gave back a number of items to Egypt."
I ask why he collects so many photographs. "I love the art of it, and the light in some of the pictures is wonderful, for example in Le Grey's "Grande vague à Sète." I also have a large collection of lenses and cameras; I think of the lenses as sculpture. But I bought the daguerreotype ["The Temple of Jupiter in Athens" by Girault de Prangey, which set a new record for a photograph last year at £565,250] for myself."
However, he does not collect Impressionist and Old Master paintings. I asked him whether this is because it is almost impossible to establish a first-rate collection. "No," he says, "I am more interested in objects, I am not excited by huge things. I love smaller pieces. I need to feel a piece, to be able to handle it."
Which raises the question, where does the private collection stop and the public one begin? Sheikh Saud is extremely wealthy, so he is buying both for the State museums, and for himself. "I am focusing on natural history which has always been my hobby and is reflected in the breeding program," he says.
I ask him what Qataris think about his collecting. "My family thinks I am crazy!" he admits, "You must remember that Qatar is small, and that there are really only about 100,000 or 120,000 Qataris, it is like a small British town. I have to take account of what people here think."
But the Sheikh's vision seems far broader than that contained in current public opinion. Parties of schoolchildren were being taken around the silk exhibition when I visited, in the hope of engendering a life-long interest in art history. In a generation, the Sheikh hopes, Qatar will have its own specialists as well as its own, excellent, museums in a whole range of specialties.
The Art Newspaper © 2004 ""
Forbes.com Lifestyle: "Finest Galleries
The Textile Gallery
Anyone curious about the difference between a good street-corner rug dealer and the Mount Olympus of high art dealing in priceless textiles need look no further than The Textile Gallery in London's Mayfair quarter. Michael Franses owns and runs the gallery which he founded in 1975 with Jacqueline Franses, his wife and business partner.
For the cognoscenti it's enough just to say that, in the 1970s, Michael Franses was also co-founder and publisher of Hali, the scholarly textile magazine and bible of the industry. What that means, in layman's terms, is that Franses simply knows everything there is to know about the quality, rarity and esthetics of any genre of antique textile the world has produced. He has placed carpets in top museum collections, from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to London's Victoria and Albert Museum to Tehran's Carpet Museum. When a Gulf state emir wants to build a collection, Franses is often his first choice.
The Textile Gallery is not a place where you go to bargain over carpets. Instead, the buyer knows that any piece Franses shows has a place in history, an irreproachable pedigree and market recognition that justifies the price. This means that in the area, say, of Chinese carpets, anything you see came likely as not from the Imperial Palace in Beijing.
In a less documented genre such as the Central Asian suzani, the silk-on-cotton embroideries from the Khanates of what is now Uzbekistan, Franses' eye is documentation enough. Indeed, he is often credited with inventing the market in suzanis, which can now sell at Christie's and Sotheby's auctions for tens of thousands of dollars. His exhibition of suzanis at Sotheby's New York in September 2000 featured several valued at $40,000 and higher.
Similarly, Franses is credited with introducing the Caucasian kaytak to the world in the mid-1990s. Until he marketed them, nobody knew their regional and esthetic differentiations, their genres, motifs, dating or value.
Though Franses' business is focused chiefly on Asian textiles from Turkey to China, he has at times also dealt in top European genres and in other objects such as antique Chinese furniture. Franses runs two related businesses: Longevity, his textile cleaning and maintenance company, services high-quality fragile and rare pieces; and his publishing company, Textile & Art Publications, produces very fine coffee-table art books in his discipline.
The publishing company acts as an extension of his missionary zeal in educating people about his passionate love of textiles. Sometimes he jokes that he hasn't produced this or that book on an obscure textile because he "doesn't like to give information to the competition." In truth, he's often too busy. He's constantly contributing scholarly articles to Hali and organizing exhibitions at museums worldwide. Franses is famously quoted as saying that he "was conceived on a rug." After meeting him, one almost believes it is true. -- Melik Kaylan"
posted by JBOC @ 7:38 AM 0 comments
Did the Ring Rape Sheikh Saud While he Cheated His Cousin the Emir - Michael Franses is Quoted
The World's Biggest Art Collector - Forbes.com:
Connoisseur's Guide
The World's Biggest Art Collector
Georgina Adams for The Art Newspaper
Just before the Maastricht fair opened last month, as all the dealers stood ready and waiting at their stands, one slender, bespectacled buyer was given a special early tour, guided by a fair trustee. As he examined a 16th-century cabinet here, an antiquity or a tribal mask there, whispers followed his passage through the stands, because every dealer knew who he was: Sheikh Saud Al Thani, cousin of the Emir of Qatar, the world's most active collector of art and the market's biggest spender.
For the past decade, Sheikh Saud has moved through the market like a whirlwind, collecting voraciously in a huge range of fields. He has purchased textiles, Egyptian antiquities, natural history prints, precious stones, jewelry, fossils, narwhal tusks, entire libraries, photographs and vintage cameras, Roman antiquities, art-deco furniture, statues, vintage cars, antique bicycles and 18th-century French furniture, with much more besides.
He is not collecting for himself: most of the art is destined for museums planned in Doha, the capital of the tiny, fabulously rich emirate of Qatar. In a few years, if all goes according to plan, the city will become a cultural and educational hub for the whole of the Gulf area with at least five new museums, all designed by world-famous architects such as I.M. Pei and Santiago Calatrava. As President of Qatar's National Council for Culture, Arts and the Heritage, Sheikh Saud is responsible for building the collections of these museums. The resources and the political will are there: only the sheer administrative burden of undertaking so much at once could hamper progress.
Until now, little was known about the museum program, except for the names of the architects. What was going into them remained a mystery, even if every time a huge price is paid at auction, the Sheikh is inevitably identified as the probable buyer.
There have been some peeks behind the veil: in the last three years, a selection of pieces from the future Museum of Islamic Art has been shown during the Doha Cultural Festival. This year, the small but exquisite "Silk and ivory" exhibition in Doha displayed 32 items and provided a sneak preview of the quality of the work that will be on show when the museum opens. At the same time, the detailed plans for five museums were revealed.
It was during a visit to "Silk and ivory," that I met Sheikh Saud, at Al Wabra, the family's desert estate some 30 minutes from Doha. Set in the flat rock-and-sand plain that makes up the Qatari peninsular. Al Wabra has been transformed by the Sheikh into an animal conservation centre. In it he is breeding endangered wildlife, particularly birds and gazelles. An animal hospital, lecture centre and accommodation for the 120 staff are being built on the premises.
Middle Eastern rulers have traditionally had menageries of gazelles, cheetahs and antelopes, but the Sheikh's estate is no hobby, rather a sustained program: he also funds conservation programs in other parts of the world. He even got shot at when venturing into war-torn Somalia on a mission to save the Beria antelopes, which are facing extinction. He managed to bring back nine of the beautiful, doe-eyed beasts to Qatar.
The day I visit is a Friday, and as the muezzin calls to prayer, the jackals trotting around in their pens start to bark. Storks, peacocks and guinea fowl range on the lawns around the house, which retains a domestic feel, with children's climbing frames outside. The Sheikh, who is in his late 30s, is married with three children.
He is the first cousin of the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who came to power in 1995 after deposing his father in a bloodless coup. Sheikh Hamad has brought new, progressive thinking into his small State. Qatar is a country where the Emir holds absolute power, so the oil and gas revenues can be used as he wishes--l'état, c'est lui--and sits between the modern world, with its rigid organization, and the personal nature of the tribal world. With ultra-commercial Dubai on one side and the deeply conservative Saudi Arabia on another, Qatar has chosen a third way, that of education and culture. The Emir's wife, Sheikha Mouzah, heads the Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.
Dignified, reserved but pleasant, Sheikh Saud is dressed in traditional Arab costume, a long white robe, its cuffs held by simple silver links: he wears a white headdress with black bands and, from time to time, plays with coral worry beads. One might have expected this feverish collector, involved in a storm of projects, to be impatient. On the contrary: he seems calm and unhurried. Educated in Doha and Egypt, he is entirely self-taught in art history. However, dealers in a range of fields are unanimous: despite his lack of formal training, the Sheikh has an extraordinary visual memory and considerable knowledge as well as an excellent "eye." "He has learned more in two years than many learn in 15," says one antiquities dealer.
I ask Sheikh Saud why he is building so many museums. "His Highness the Emir is changing many things, particularly in the cultural and educational fields, even in entertainment," he replies. "He wants his people to understand, when they go to a museum, what is good or bad, what is old and new. He does not want a museum to be academic, but a place to enjoy. Here in Qatar, we are poor in history. We don't have our own Islamic pieces like Egypt or Turkey, so we collect Islamic art across the board. For the government, the target is to improve culture. Step by step, we want to become a very cultivated city."
His motto could be "nothing but the best," and this is evident in all his decisions, from the architects he has chosen to the works he has bought. "I go by masterpieces," he says. "Pieces from an important church, a major family, a great collection, these really interest me, they have history and provenance. You get them in the best possible condition, and there are no problems of authenticity." He continues: "I want visitors to see the very best, or nothing at all. This is a way of ensuring that my successor will have to collect at the same level, I will set the standard." His reference to a successor, for a man not yet 40, hints at a feeling that he must achieve a lot very quickly, and at a fear that his work will not be continued. He has often said that what he is trying to achieve will not be understood in his lifetime.
To achieve his gold he has surrounded himself with advisors. These include curators such as Oliver Watson, from the Islamic Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and Hubert Bari, from the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, who are already living in Doha. "Our target is great quality, and first you have to judge this with your eyes." says the Sheikh. "Afterwards, for authenticity and provenance, then you need advice, and we have curators and sources we can call on."
One is Michael Franses, the London-based textile dealer who curated "Silk and ivory." Mr. Franses recounts how Sheikh Saud asked him for lists of the greatest pieces in private collections, and then flew to see each owner and attempted to buy the pieces, sometimes with success. The Sheikh has swallowed whole collections, such as the Bokelberg group of historical photographs, for an estimated $15 million, and the Spira collection of vintage cameras.
But it is in the saleroom that Sheikh Saud has had the biggest impact, even if he is rarely identified as a buyer. He admits that he can get carried away with auction fever, and when he wants something, he has paid extraordinary sums well over the odds.
"He is sometimes very enthusiastic in a sale, and it is not always clear who could be underbidding," says one dealer. He spent $6 million buying half the lots at the Jammes auction of photography in London in 1999, paying £507,000 for Gustave Le Gray's "Grande vague à Sète." In Paris, he swooped on Coptic textiles and Iznik ceramics being sold from the Kelekian collection at Drouot. Two major pieces of Western Islamic metalwork, a 10th-century Cordoba hind which sold for £3.6 million in 1997, and the peacock sold last year for £900,000, are his, as is the rediscovered Renaissance roundel which made £7.9 million at Christie's last December. He also bought Audubon's Birds of America from the collection of the Marquis of Bute at Christie's New York in 2000 for $8.8 million; Redouté's "Les roses" and the earliest text written in Arabic; and much, much more. "I don't feel I have to compete for every object," he says, "but when a great work of art comes up for sale, it's never too expensive. I lost one object in terms of price, and now it has gone somewhere else, and I shall never get it."
Some of his collections are stored in a series of warehouses at the estate. Visiting these buildings, packed floor to ceiling, is a remarkable experience, as one wanders through the extraordinary Kunstkammer this modern-day Medici has accumulated. A statue from an English stately home stands next to a Benin bronze, while propped beside them is the third-century BC Roman glass bowl with tangent rings, one of the best pieces of Roman glass in the world, sold by the British Rail Pension Fund at Sotheby's in 1997. (Bidding anonymously, Sheikh Saud acquired 11 pieces in the sale.) Auction tags still hang from many pieces, and dealers' labels are propped alongside others.
Hanging on the wall is a Sassanian lion carpet in astonishingly good condition, its colors as bright as the day it was woven. Egyptian antiquities line the shelves: Sheikh Saud is passionate about the 18th dynasty and Akhenaten, the pharaoh to whom he bears a startling resemblance. Egyptian specialists say his knowledge of the dynasty is remarkable.
Turn a corner and you stumble upon Boutet de Monvel's painting of the Maharajah of Indore, another influence on the Sheikh. It hangs above the Maharajah's Art Deco bed, between two colossal bookcases, also by Ruhlmann. He has many other art deco pieces from the Maharajah's palace (the contents of which were sold at auction in 1980), and they are reportedly destined for the futuristic palace Arata Isozaki has designed for him as a home. A scale model of the building sits on the floor of the warehouse: resembling a silver flying saucer, it has a long ramp curving around the whole structure and leading to glass boxes on the top, where cars and other items will be displayed. Beneath a glass dome is a swimming pool which the sheikh has asked the artist David Hockney to design.
There is a whole store of natural history specimens, notably fossils of very high quality, petrified tree trunks and even a complete dinosaur skeleton. The Sheikh also has a collection of precious stones as good as the Sultan of Brunei's.
A climate-controlled room holds the natural history library, which specialists say is as good as any in the world and which cost $250 million alone. Sheikh Saud went head-to-head with the French State over the 18th-century Traité général des pesches, an illustrated manuscript of absolute rarity, which he bought for some £500,000 at auction in France. It was then denied an export license by the French government and it is probable that it will go on long-term loan to a French museum. I ask the Sheikh if he has had other problems with export. "I try to avoid them," he replies, "I would not go for something that might not be exportable, or if there is a subsequent difficulty I give the work to the country. I just gave back a number of items to Egypt."
I ask why he collects so many photographs. "I love the art of it, and the light in some of the pictures is wonderful, for example in Le Grey's "Grande vague à Sète." I also have a large collection of lenses and cameras; I think of the lenses as sculpture. But I bought the daguerreotype ["The Temple of Jupiter in Athens" by Girault de Prangey, which set a new record for a photograph last year at £565,250] for myself."
However, he does not collect Impressionist and Old Master paintings. I asked him whether this is because it is almost impossible to establish a first-rate collection. "No," he says, "I am more interested in objects, I am not excited by huge things. I love smaller pieces. I need to feel a piece, to be able to handle it."
Which raises the question, where does the private collection stop and the public one begin? Sheikh Saud is extremely wealthy, so he is buying both for the State museums, and for himself. "I am focusing on natural history which has always been my hobby and is reflected in the breeding program," he says.
I ask him what Qataris think about his collecting. "My family thinks I am crazy!" he admits, "You must remember that Qatar is small, and that there are really only about 100,000 or 120,000 Qataris, it is like a small British town. I have to take account of what people here think."
But the Sheikh's vision seems far broader than that contained in current public opinion. Parties of schoolchildren were being taken around the silk exhibition when I visited, in the hope of engendering a life-long interest in art history. In a generation, the Sheikh hopes, Qatar will have its own specialists as well as its own, excellent, museums in a whole range of specialties.
The Art Newspaper © 2004 ""
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