£5.4m gift for Islamic art

Society Religion & Philosophy
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This will be something informative. This Abdul Latif Jameel Group sounds just as interesting as the artefacts themselves.

V&A’s £5.4m gift for Islamic art, BBC, 3 February 2004

The Victoria and Albert Museum is to open a new gallery of Islamic art with a £5.4m donation from a Saudi company.

It will house treasures from the V&A’s collection of more than 10,000 ancient Islamic objects from the Middle East.

The donation is from the Oxford-based motor company Hartwell, part of the Abdul Latif Jameel Group. It will allow the London museum to transform a gallery to show thousands of artefacts including carpets, glass, ceramics and woodwork, from 2006. The museum said it was one of the most generous gifts it had ever received.

The gallery will be named The Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art after Abdul Latif Jameel, late founder of the Saudi parent company. The gallery will include such famous pieces as the Ardabil Carpet from 16th Century Iran - said to be one of the largest and finest carpets in existence.

Displays will include carved ivories from Islamic Spain, inlaid metalwork from medieval Egypt, Iznik ceramics from Ottoman Turkey, tile work from 14th Century Uzbekistan and oil paintings from 19th Century Iran.

The donation will also fund a touring exhibition of the artworks which will visit the US and Japan before returning to the UK in Sheffield ahead of the gallery’s scheduled opening in 2006.

The Abdul Latif Jameel Group, founded in Saudi Arabia 60 years ago, has a reputation for philanthropy.

It has funded a $30m (£16m) project providing vocational training for young Saudis, and developed programmes helping Saudi women to learn new skills.

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Hmmm

what's happening?

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Sorry Swera :hug: :flower1: But what do you mean?

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Here’s some art/furniture I liked from Egypt.

http://www.gupistan.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=2243205#post2243205

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Madhanee: *
This money could have been well spent giving driving lessons to Saudi women, or teaching Taliban about caring for antiquities that belong to the world, and not just to morons. Or perhaps better spent on feeding the hungry. Some people have their priorities messed up.
[/QUOTE]

a friend of mine once said

It’s philanthropy, and it is good. This is what makes the US Institutions the most premier in the world. Private grants make it possible for Unis to keep up.

this was in reference to an endowment at stanford. maybe he has changed his opinion since then

we can always make statements about how else that money could have been used...ahmedis did not have the build that huge center in europe, that could have gone to feed the hungry..heck the money u spend on drinks could feed someone who needs food more than u need your scotch :)

bhai meray, this is a good reason, if a company or a person want to make a donation, let them do it. yes there are many other needs out there. Does not mean that this was not a good cause.

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^ yeah plus with the cheap scotch that u buy, they can probably only buy small fries or something..