The 17th-century Turkish tent on display at the Wawel Royal Castle, Cracow, is the largest of its kind in Poland, and is one of the most valuable historical mementoes in the Wawel collection and indeed all of Europe.
For over a millenium, plant motifs in the form of vines, leaves, flowers, fruits, and trees were among those most frequently used in the art of the Islamic world. Many of these works were created in the hot, barren regions of the Middle East, and the lush Paradise as described in the Qur’an would have appealed to the Muslim artists.
A selection of Islamic masterworks from Kuwait’s al-Sabah Collection are on display at The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, until 26 January 2014, as part of a long-term collaboration with the Kuwait National Museum, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah (DAI).
A superb 17th century carpet from Persia leads a record breaking auction of carpets at Sotheby’s New York, selling for $33m, and putting rugs in the same collecting category as Old Master and Modern paintings
