Many carpets in the David Sorgato gallery, is Armenian

The splendid David Sorgato Gallery has arranged an exhibition ‘Ancient Stars, Visions from Anatolia to the Caucasus’ at his gallery in Milan as part of the program for ‘The Hali Colloquium in Italy: Florence, Milan, Turin, and Genoa‘.

On display are fantastic rugs from the 17th and 18th rugs. All of them have the same attributions: Caucasian or Anatolian. And if a rug somehow doesn’t fit into those two categories then the attribution is “Moghan” or “Shahseven”. But NEVER Armenian. However many of these extraordinary rugs are ARMENIAN.

All these “Bullshit” designations were created over a century ago to mask Armenian provenance so as not to upset our “neighbors”.

These western “rug experts”—dealers, magazines, auction houses, and authors—don’t realize they have become tools or “useful idiots” for cultural theft.

Here is an example. Look at this extraordinary Mafrash (Bedding Bag) end panel that everyone is raving about. The designation is South-east Caucasus, Moghan region (present-day Iran-Azerbaijan border). But the piece is Armenian. Look how Daniel Rahmanan argues with me.

Read more here: David Sorgato gallery

This piece was woven in Artsakh (Nagorny-Karabagh). How do I know? Because of this similar piece with the same “marching peacock” border, I show below. Dated 1800 and inscribed in Armenian. Ex-provenance James D. Burns. If it wasn’t for the tradition of Armenians to inscribe many of their cultural artifacts, everything would be attributed to others.

So what to do? Get in touch with David at info@davidsorgato.com He’s a nice guy and I am sure he will understand. Explain to him that the attribution must be changed otherwise he and Hali Magazine are contributing to cultural theft.

By Arto Tavukciyan