Pearl Carpet of Baroda Sets Rug Record
An Indian carpet made of pearls and gems today fetched a record $5.5 million at the first series of auctions held by Sotheby’s in the Gulf state of Qatar.
The 5-foot-8-inch by 8-foot-8-inch Pearl Carpet of Baroda had been commissioned in 1865 by the Maharajah of the former Indian state of Baroda, possibly as a gift for the tomb of the prophet Mohammed at Medina, said Sotheby’s.
The carpet, with more than 1 million natural Basra seed pearls, had never been offered before at auction and was expected to fetch at least $5 million, said Sotheby’s. The sale price included fees. The New York-based auction house would not reveal the identity or nationality of the seller in Doha and said it was sold to an anonymous telephone buyer.
Its price beat the previous highest amount paid for a carpet or rug: $4.5 million in June, 2008 at Christie’s International, New York, for a 17th-century Persian silk Isfahan rug that had belonged to the U.S. collector Doris Duke.
During the Qatar sale, an early-17th century Persian velvet panel, showing elegantly-dressed women walking in a garden, sold for $3.4 million, 10 times the upper estimate. The recently- discovered Safavid court textile measured 3-foot-3-inches-wide. It had been in a European private collection for nearly a century and would now be returning to another, said Sotheby’s.
In October 2008, Sotheby’s announced that it would be holding a “major international series of auctions” in Doha in early 2009. The following month, the oil-rich Gulf state opened a new Museum of Islamic Art, designed by I.M Pei.
Yang pasti I.M Pei bukan inisial dari Irawan Mintorogo
Inaugural Sale
Sellers entered just 18 lots — plus the carpet, which had its own catalog — into Sotheby’s inaugural Arts of the Islamic World auction. Only five of the 18 managed to sell. They totaled $4 million with fees. The estimate was $4 million at hammer prices.
Islamic works of art are one of many auction markets that have been affected by the economic slump. Last year, Sotheby’s April 9 Islamic art sale in London fetched a record 21.5 million pounds ($31.1 million). Six months later, on Oct. 8, following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and as crude oil fell to its lowest in 10 months, the equivalent Islamic sale at Sotheby’s took 9.3 million pounds.
Yesterday evening, Sotheby’s first auction of international, Arab and Iranian contemporary art in Doha took $4.3 million. This was less than half of the presale estimate of $13.8 million to $19.7 million. Fifty-five percent of the 51 offered lots sold. The top price was the low estimate $974,500 paid for a purple-colored Anish Kapoor stainless-steel mirror sculpture, dated 2003.
“While the contemporary art market is thriving at adjusted levels as we saw in our sales of contemporary art in London in February, tonight’s sale was not supported by the international market place to the extent we had hoped,” Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s chairman of contemporary art for Europe, said in an e-mailed statement after the auction
Sebuah karpet yang didesain untuk menghias makam Nabi Muhammad SAW di Madinah terjual 5,4585 juta dollar AS atau seharga Rp 83 miliar dalam sebuah lelang di Qatar.
Tidak hanya nilai sejarah yang membuat karpet tersebut bernilai tinggi. Karpet yang sudah berusia 150 tahun itu juga dihiasi ratusan batu-batuan mahal seperti intan, safir, rubi, dan emerald.
Karpet itu dikenal dengan nama Karpet Mutiara dari Baroda karena banyaknya mutiara yang dipakai untuk menghiasnya. Diperkirakan, dua juta batu mutiara digunakan yang diambil dari perairan Teluk Persia.
Selama ini, karpet yang dibuat tahun 1860-an tersebut dikenal sebagai hadiah dari Maharaja Baroda dari India untuk dipasang di makam Nabi Muhammad. Namun, karpet tersebut tidak jadi dibawa ke Arab Saudi karena sang raja keburu meninggal. Akhirnya karpet hanya disimpan keluarga raja.
Karpet tersebut sempat dipamerkan dalam Delhi Exhibition pada tahun 1902. Kemudian disimpan di Monaco. Pada tahun 1985, karpet itu juga dipamerkan di New York. Balai lelang Sotheby’s selaku penyelenggara lelang sebenarnya berharap karpet tersebut dapat terjual minimal 20 juta dollar AS. Namun, penawaran perdana 5,5 juta dollar AS tak menarik minat pelelang.
Lelang Kamis (19/3) kemarin dibuka dengan nilai 4,5 juta dollar AS yang diikuti tiga penawar. Penawaran tertinggi berhenti pada angka 5,4585 juta dollar AS termasuk komisi dan biaya lelang. Namun, Shoteby’s belum bersedia mengumumkan pemenang lelang tersebut.
Dengan banyaknya batuan mahal yang menghiasnya, karpet tersebut mungkin tak akan digelar di lantai, tapi lebih cocok sebagai hiasan dinding.
Awas hilang jika dibeli oleh orang Indonesia.
