Nasser Khalili

Khalili was born in 1945 in the city of Isfahan, Iran, the fourth of five children, to a Jewish family of art dealers and traders of artefacts.[8] Khalili and his family moved to Tehran, Iran, when he was only a few months old. By the age of eight, he was accompanying his father on buying expeditions, often buying items such as Persian lacquer and other Islamic arts.[9]

He studied in Tehran and wrote a book about the "geniuses of the world", aged 14. It was suggested in many news articles that Khalili had written the book following an argument with one of his teachers. After the book was published, Khalili featured on television discussing his book and also wrote columns in newspapers.[10]

Khalili completed his national service in Iran as a medic in the Iranian Army,[11] before leaving Iran in 1967 for the United States with $750 earned from sales of his book. He studied computer science and earned a BA degree in the subject at Queens College, City University of New York, and graduated in 1974.[8]

Khalili started his business career trading in art, before moving into property development and commodities. Khalili began collecting art in New York City in the 1970s, keeping the best pieces for his own collection.[10][7]

He began visiting London auction houses in the mid 1970s, and established his own gallery in Mayfair between 1978 and 1980.[9] Khalili initially traded in Persian lacquerware, and subsequently wrote a thesis on the subject, receiving a PhD degree in Islamic art from SOAS, University of London in 1988.[10] His focus on lacquerware also coincided with many undervaluing this art form. In 1978, the price of Islamic art fell substantially according to an article in Saudi Aramco World.[12] Aramco World stated in the article that Khalili continued to invest in Islamic art during this period and this was one of the reasons he was able to acquire so many high quality works for low prices.[12]

People close to Khalili stated that he invested wisely and often discreetly. In a London Evening Standard article, Michael Spink stated the following about Khalili's collection and growth of wealth; "he would buy items for £2,000 which, over a long period, appreciated to £200,000. People did not always realise that it was him doing the buying." Khalili's dealership was based in Mayfair's Clifford Street in the 1980s. When asked directly how he had gathered his wealth during the 1970s and 1980s, Khalili stated it was from sugar and coffee trading, the options market, property investments and works of art.[9]

In the mid-1980s, the scale of Khalili's collection greatly expanded. In the early 1990s, he began to publish a 27-volume catalogue of his Islamic art collection, for which he commissioned a number of leading Islamic scholars. In 1992, he was interviewed by The Independent following the launch of the first volume of this catalogue of Islamic art. According to the article, suspicions in the art industry were that Khalili was assembling the collection on behalf of a rich investor. The release of the collection under his own name stopped those suspicions and showed Khalili's collection as belonging to himself and his family.[13]

During the same period, Khalili was an art advisor to Hassanal Bolkiah, The Sultan of Brunei. Khalili subsequently helped persuade the sultan to donate £10 million to create the Brunei Gallery at SOAS, University of London.[13][8]

In 1992, Khalili offered to lend his Islamic art collection to the British government for a period of 15 years and on condition it is publicly displayed in a "museum building in central London". It was suggested that the museum would be known as the Khalili Museum, with the running costs of the museum and insurance to be publicly funded. The offer was made with the potential for turning the donation into a gift at the expiration of the 15-year period. The Conservative politician Lord Young of Graffham and the public relations executive Lord Bell lobbied the government to accept Khalili's offer.[10] Many expressed an interest in the proposal by Khalili for a London-based Islamic museum, including Prince Charles.

Folio from the copy of Ferdowsi‘s Shahnameh made for Shah Tahmasp I; Tabriz, Iran, 1520–1550, now in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art

Khalili has assembled eight art collections under the auspices of the Khalili Family Trust. Collectively referred to as the Khalili Collections, they are divided into Islamic Art dating from 700 to 2000; Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage from 700 to 2000; Aramaic Documents from 535BC to 324 BC; Japanese Art of the Meiji Period from 1868 to 1912; Japanese Kimono from 1700 to 2000; Swedish Textiles from 1700 to 1900; Spanish Damascened Metalwork from 1850 to 1900 and Enamels of the World from 1700 to 2000.[14] Together, the eight collections comprise some 35,000 works.

The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art is curated by Julian Raby, the Director of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The collection has holdings of more than 28,000 objects documenting arts from Islamic lands over a period of 1,400 years. It was described in 1998 as "one of the largest and most representative collections of Quranic manuscripts in the world"[15] and is the largest private collection.[16] The collection includes manuscripts of the Holy Qur'an, rare and illustrated manuscripts, album paintings, bookbindings, lacquer, ceramics, glass and rock crystal, metalwork, scientific instruments, arms and armour, jewellery, carpets and textiles, coins and architectural elements.[17]

The Hajj and the arts of pilgrimage collection relates to Hajj and the arts associated with it. The works in the collection range from the Umayyad period to the 21st century. The collection aims to represent an overview of the subject, illustrating various religious and artistic aspects of the pilgrimages to various holy cities. The collection contains approximately 3,000 objects, including over 250 textiles and many other objects relating to Mecca and Medina. The combined collection is the second largest collection of its kind, with the Topkapı Palace museum the only larger collection globally.[17]

The Khalili Collection of Aramaic documents is a collection of 48 Aramaic documents from Ancient Bactria. The majority of the collection is made up of part letters and accounts connected with the court of the Satrap of Bactria. The significance of the documents is that they are the oldest correspondence of the administration of Bactria and Sogdiana. The documents are written in Official Aramaic and were likely from the historical city of Balkh. The documents are dated to a period of less than 30 years, between 353BC to 324BC. The newest of the documents were written during Alexander the Great's early reign in the region.[17]

The Japanese Art of the Meiji period collection is only comparable in terms of quality to the collection of the Japanese Imperial family.[18] It comprises over 1,400 pieces, including metalwork, enamels, lacquerwork and ceramics. The pieces are from the period of Emperor Meiji's rule from 1868 to 1912. The period saw a cultural revolution in Japan, where traditional tastes in Japan were met with international ones.[17]

Kimono for a Young Woman (Furisode), Japan, 1912–1926. From the Khalili Collection of Kimono

Khalili's second Japanese-based collection is the Khalili Collection of Kimono. This covers three hundred years of the Japanese textile industry and contains over 450 garments. The garments have been worn to demonstrate gender, age, status and wealth throughout Japan's history. The collection reveals a variety in kimono designs, illustrating how the design and use of kimono have changed over the centuries. The collection mainly represents four periods, the Edo period (1603-1868), the Meiji period (1868-1912), Taisho (1912-1926) and early Showa (1926–1989), with a few selected pieces produced later on.[17]

The Khalili Collection of Swedish Textiles comprises nearly a hundred textile panels, dating between 1700 and 1900. The majority of the works are from a one hundred-year period, and from the area of Scania, the southern-most region of Sweden. The textile collection contains art mostly made for wedding ceremonies in the region. While they played a part in the ceremonies, they were also a reflection of the artistry and skill of the weaver. Their designs often consist of symbolic illustrations of fertility and long life.[17]

Enamelled carriage belonging to the Indian Maharaja of Bhavnagar. From the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Enamels of the World

The Spanish damascene metalwork collection is one of the largest collections of its kind. The collection pays homage to the Zuloaga family, who played a major part in the preservation of damascening in Spain. The collection contains pieces commissioned by Plácido Zuloaga between 1834 and 1910. Some of the pieces were originally acquired by the 19th-century English collector Alfred Morrison. The entire collection comprises over 100 pieces, 22 of which are signed by Plácido Zuloaga.[17] At the opening of the Khalili Zuloaga exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, its then director Alan Borg said it was "a landmark in the study of 19th century Spanish decorative art".[19]

The formation of the Enamels of the World collection was based upon the global significance and evolution of enamelling. The collection consists of over 1,300 pieces. Whereas enamels are usually studied with a particular focus, such as a geographical region, era or enamelling technique, Khalili's collection illustrates how enamelling has evolved throughout history on a global scale.[17]

The Khalili Collections will be fully represented in a series of over 100 books, including exhibition catalogues, of which over 70 have already been published.[20] Khalili estimated that the publication of the catalogues and associated research papers would cost him between £20-30 million.[10]

Through his foundations and trusts, Khalili has made many substantial donations to a number of different organisations, institutions, and charities. Donations in the field of education include an endowment of £2.5 million to the University of Oxford.[26] The funds were used for the establishment of the Khalili Research Centre for the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East, which was opened by the Chancellor of Oxford University, Lord Patten, in July 2005.[27] The Khalili Family Trust's support continues to the present day, notably with another substantial donation in 2011.

In 1989, Khalili donated £600,000 to establish The Khalili Chair of Islamic Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He also gave a further £200,000 in 2003 for the refurbishment of the lecture theatre at the school. Furthermore, in 1992, he made an endowment of £51,000 to the University of Oxford for a Research Fellowship in Islamic Art.[28]

In the early 1990s, he was solely responsible for securing £10 million from H.M. the Sultan of Brunei to build the Brunei Gallery at School of Oriental and African Studies. In 2012, he pledged over £1.5million in support of his charity, The Maimonides Interfaith Foundation, in celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Khalili founded the charitable Maimonides Interfaith Foundation in 1995 to promote "understanding, cooperation and peace between Jews, Christians and Muslims internationally through art, culture and education".[7][29] The foundation created the Maimonides Interfaith Explorers, a free online educational resource for children aged 10 to 11.[30]

A panorama of Jerusalem from the House of Peace series

In the 1990s, Khalili commissioned a series of five paintings by the artist Ben Johnson called the House of Peace to promote "peace and harmony" between Judaism, Christianity and Islam.[31] The foundation also donated thousands of copies of The Timeline History of Islamic Art and Architecture (Visions of Splendour), written by Khalili, to schools in the United Kingdom and Islamic countries.[32]

He has been awarded many other honours, including Trustee of the City of Jerusalem,[33] and in 2007 the High Sheriff of Greater London Award for his cultural contribution to London. He is Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Francis I (KCFO).[33] He is exceptional in having received Knighthoods from two Popes. Pope John Paul II honoured him as Knight of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St Sylvester (KSS) and Pope Benedict XVI further elevated him to Knight Commander in the said order (KCSS) for his work in the pursuit of peace, education and culture amongst nations.[33] In 2012, he was further honoured in this field by UNESCO, as a Goodwill Ambassador.[34] In 2014, he was the recipient of the Laureate of the Dialogue of Cultures Award at the French National Assembly and consequently in early 2016 he was awarded the Rank of Officier in the Ordre national de la Légion d’Honneur by the French president. He was appointed as a member of the Honorary Board at the INTERPOL Foundation for a Safer World (2018 - 2019).[35]

In a 2010 interview Khalili said that his collecting in the mid 1980s was funded by his dealings in venture capital, having profited from shares in a company that developed technology to treat tumours, and that he made $15 million from the sale of a company that manufactured indigestion pills in 1987.[8] In 1992, Khalili had described his wealth as deriving from "dealing in art, commodities and real estate".[10] Khalili has said that his collecting was primarily funded by his property investments from 1980.[8]

In 2007 Khalili's wealth was estimated at £5.8 billion by the Sunday Times Rich List, but he was removed from subsequent editions of the list. In 2007 and 2008 Forbes estimated Khalili's wealth at $1.3 billion, but he dropped off the 2014 edition of the list.[56] In 2008 The Art Newspaper wrote that "a £1 billion valuation is believed more likely" than previously claimed higher amounts.[9] Khalili has claimed that he has spent $650 million on art.[9]

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