Leaning over the railing of a third-floor balcony of the Ahmanson Wing of the L.A. County Museum of Art, Dale Gluckman gestures at the floor of the atrium below and says, "This is the way the Ardabil carpet was meant to be seen, looking down from above."
The rare carpet, which measures 23 feet by 13 feet, has proved a challenge to exhibit, says Gluckman, who is the museum's costume and textiles curator. Considered a treasure of the museum's permanent collection, the 16th century carpet has been rolled up and in storage for 15 years due to the fragility of its silk and woolen fibers. Beginning today, however, it will be displayed on a platform on the ground floor of the Ahmanson atrium, through Aug. 9. Afterward, it will be sent to Surrey, England, where it will be restored to its former glory at the Historical Royal Palace Textile Conservation Studios at Hampton Court Palace. The cost of such a project? Around $250,000. The value of the Ardabil carpet? Priceless.
Exhibition and restoration of the carpet is the pet project of LACMA director Graham Beal. "It struck me as ironic, to say the least, when people would ask me about the greatest work of art in the collection, I would explain that one of those would be the Ardabil carpet. Yet, no one has seen it for 15 years, because it is not in [long-term] exhibition condition. And the process of converting it to exhibition condition is a very expensive one."
He adds, "It's a big chunk of money to throw at one work of art, so it required a certain executive resolve. Yet this carpet is like a Cezanne or Van Gogh; it is right up there."
Even after the restoration, for which the museum is raising funds, the carpet won't be on view again for at least a year, Beal says. "This is a chance to see one of the objects that in theory you would put under your arm and run out with if the building was on fire."
After its return to LACMA, Linda Komaroff, the museum's associate curator of Islamic art, said she hopes to exhibit the carpet regularly in the galleries for Islamic art, which are to be expanded. She would like to mount it on the floor so that it can be seen from above. To prevent it from receiving too much light, it will alternate in the galleries with the museum's 16th century Coronation carpet, a figural Persian carpet used at the Westminster Abbey coronation of King Edward VII in 1902.
