Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Salaam, New York

July 10, 2009 by Marion Maneker

Despite layoffs and cutbacks, New York’s Met is moving ahead with a plan to renovate and expand it’s Islamic art collection, according to Carol Vogel’s NY Times column:

“Even in these difficult economic circumstances, we’re standing firm to our mission to constantly upgrade our galleries,” said Thomas P. Campbell, director of the Met. […]

The Islamic collection was beautifully installed before, Mr. Campbell said, “but the geopolitical situation unquestionably will place a greater hunger among our visitors to this part of the museum, and it is very much our role to expand the public’s understanding of the extraordinary riches of Islamic art.” Although the new galleries, like the old, will be organized chronologically, they will include thematic sections to reflect new scholarship. […]

The $50 million project, which includes an endowment, already has significant benefactors: Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, New York philanthropists who have given $10 million toward the new galleries that will be devoted to Safavid and later Persian art. In addition to the actual renovations, their donation will also go toward a new catalog of 350 highlights from the entire Islamic department’s collection and to an endowment to support educational programming centered on Iranian art. […]

The museum will name the gallery after the Mossavar-Rahmanis. (He is chairman of the board of Foxtrot International, an oil and gas company based in Ivory Coast, and chief executive of Mondoil Enterprises, an energy company headquartered in New Mexico. He is also a trustee of the Met. She is a managing director at Goldman Sachs.)

Met Makeover Includes Enlarged Islamic Gallery (New York Times)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • An Iranian Exile Supports His Countrymen’s ArtAn Iranian Exile Supports His Countrymen’s Art
  • Sotheby's Islamic Evening Sale = £7.07mSotheby's Islamic Evening Sale = £7.07m
  • Who's the Prince?Who's the Prince?
  • Turkish Demand for HistoryTurkish Demand for History
  • Florida Woman's Turkish DelightFlorida Woman's Turkish Delight
  • The Carpet that Captured the ImaginationThe Carpet that Captured the Imagination

Filed Under: Museums Tagged With: Islamic

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • British Modernists Draw Deep Bidding in Christie's $42 M. London Sales
  • $10 M. Picasso Portrait Unseen for Decades to Sell at Bonhams
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Miami Sales Report 2015
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • David Bowie Talks About Art (with Julian Schnabel)
  • Mapping a Career in the Art World
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor