Art Sales: Islamic art week
April 15, 2010
It was Islamic art sales week this week in London, and Sotheby's, Christie's and Bonham's are all adorned with amazingly exotic works of art, rich with history. Emanating from all corners of the Islamic world, including north Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, Spain, and India, and ranging from the rise of Islam in the 7th century through to the 19th century, the blistering array of manuscripts and miniatures, pottery, textiles and carpets, decorated armour, steel swords and axe heads could be worth a combined 19million pounds.
At Sotheby's, the early 16th-century Ottoman ivory box set with rubies could obtain as much as 700,000.pounds At Christie's, there is an entire room for ornately engraved walls and a ceiling, decorated in gilt with mirrored panels made in Damascus in the early 19th century (200,000 pounds to 300,000pounds). Such rooms were bought in their position by Westerners in the 20th century to embellish their homes in Ottoman fashion a reminder of Turkey's position, both politically and aesthetically, as a crossroads between Asia and the West.
The Islamic sales are a bi-annual event on the calendar, but this week something different has been added to the mix Sotheby's has drifted into the 20th and 21st centuries, with a sale on Thursday committed to contemporary Turkish art. Sotheby's held its first sale of contemporary Turkish art last year, but, because it was not during Islamic sales week, it did not have that kind of combination which draws attention to the association of artists to their cultural heritage.
Labels: Islamic Art, Manuscripts, Miniatures, Ornately engraved walls, Turkish art
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