Ambassador Bruce A. Heyman and Vicki Heyman visited the Aga Khan Museum on June 4, 2015 to make remarks at the opening of the new exhibition “Thirst for Riches: Carpets from the East in Paintings from the West,” developed by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and expanded by the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.
In an exclusive Canadian showing, this exhibition points to the active history of trade between Europe and Muslim civilizations while exploring how beautiful objects acquire new meanings as they are exchanged. Drawing from the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York — supplemented by loans from other institutions including the Ackland Museum of Art of North Carolina and The Leiden Collection of New York — the exhibition pairs mid-17th-century Dutch paintings featuring Eastern carpets with actual carpets produced in the Near and Far East during the same period. Exquisite paintings from the museum collection enrich the exhibition by placing Eastern carpets in their original context. “Thirst for Riches: Carpets from the East in Paintings from the West’ exhibition explores cross-cultural dialogues”, said Ambassador Heyman during his remarks at the opening of the exhibition. “Well done, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and well done, the Aga Khan Museum.”
More photos the opening ceremony are available in our Flickr gallery.
