Forty-five artworks of the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts – rugs, weapons, saddles, horse trappings and aristocratic attire – will soon be presented at the Sarjah Museum of Islamic Civilization, in the United Arab Emirates. The exhibits to be shipped to Sharjah this week will be part of our first presentation in the Near East.
The artworks originating from Hungarian and Transylvanian aristocratic households of the 16th-18th centuries illustrate the esteem these objects were held in by Hungarian nobles but also the lifestyle and the commercial and cultural exchange that took place between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. The majority of the artworks came to the Kingdom of Hungary or to the Principality of Transylvania not as booty but via purchase or as a gift. Other objects in our collections were made in Hungary; they prove the strong influence of Ottoman art. One of these is the ceremonial saddle studded by gemstones which is considered to be the most valuable artwork of this selection and is chosen by the Sarjah Museum to be the representative object of the exhibition. Another interesting artwork to be exhibited in Sharjah is a so-called Transylvanian rug; a type of rug that was produced in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th-17th centuries for Transylvanian clients.
The insurance value of the artworks exceeds 9 million Euros (2.7 billion HUF), the most valuable piece, a ceremonial saddle from the 17th century represents a value of 500 thousand Euros.
The exhibition Spectacle and Splendour – Ottoman Masterpieces from the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization, opening on 26 October 2016, will run until 19 January 2017. Curator to the exhibition and author of the English and Arabic catalogue is Head of the Textile Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts, Dr Emese Pásztor.

 

(Sardzsában nyílik kiállítás az IMM iszlám anyagából,
MTI 2016. október 11., kedd 10:31)