Hwar AlMadar: European Collections of Islamic Art

Dr. Rasmus Bech Olsen is a curator at the C. L. David Collection - a private museum in Copenhagen, Denmark renowned for its rich collection of Islamic art. He was part of the curatorial team behind the museum’s critically acclaimed exhibition More Than Words: Calligraphy from the World of Islam (2024-2025) and has written articles and book chapters on various aspects of Islamic art and culture.

Dr. Olsen studied Middle Eastern studies at the University of Copenhagen and Arabic literature at The School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from The University of London in 2017 with a doctoral dissertation on the history and historiography of Mamluk Damascus. 

Mina Moraitou is the Curator of the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art. She is an art historian specialized in the study of Islamic art with 30 years experience in the field of museums. She completed her studies at SOAS, University of London, where she received a Postgraduate Diploma in the History of Asian Art (1992) and a postgraduate degree (MA) in the History of Islamic Art (1996). Since 1992, she works at the Benaki Museum, she contributed to the creation of the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art (July 2004) and became the curator in 2012. She has coordinated and curated a number of exhibitions and publications for the Benaki Museum. Among them, the exhibitions Thomas Hope: Drawings of Ottoman Istanbul (2016 in Athens and 2017 in Sharjah); Iznik- a Fascination with Ceramics (2017); Islamic Calligraphy- the Art of Iranian Writing (2018); Road of Arabia (2019) and Iznik Ceramics at the Benaki Museum (2023). 

Elisabetta Raffo is the Director of the Bruschettini Foundation for Islamic and Asian Art, based in Genoa, Italy. The foundation is renowned for its exceptional collection of Islamic and Asian art, assembled by Alessandro Bruschettini over six decades. Under her leadership, the foundation has focused on exploring the cultural and historical significance of Islamic art within a global context. 

 Mikey Muhanna is the Founder and Executive Director of Afikra, a global movement dedicated to reframing the narrative about the Arab world through community events, academy courses, podcasts, and its magazine, Daftar. What began on a Brooklyn rooftop in 2014 has grown into a world-class education and media platform, reaching a community of 200,000+ members across 30 global chapters, with a robust content library featuring hundreds of talks and millions of views.

The History of Science Museum, located in Oxford’s Old Ashmolean building, holds an extraordinary collection of scientific instruments and devices from diverse cultures and eras. Established in 1925, the Museum was founded by Robert Gunther and Lewis Evans, whose vision created a space to explore the intersection of science, history, and human experience. 

The Bruschettini Foundation for Islamic and Asian Art was founded in Genoa in AH 1433/2012 CE as a non-profit institution. It builds upon the ideals and achievements of its founder, Alessandro Bruschettini (AH 1357-1442/1939-2021 CE), a prominent Genoese industrialist, art patron, and collector. The foundation pursues public benefit in the cultural field by promoting knowledge of Islamic and Asian art, particularly in relation to Italian and European art, emphasizing the exchanges that occurred across them. As one of Italy's major private cultural institutions dedicated to the arts of the East, it also sheds light on Islamic art in Italy, acting as a generator, catalyst, and promoter of initiatives at both museum and academic levels.

The Foundation's cultural activities include national and international exhibitions, restoration projects, research, publications, conferences, and educational activities with a principal focus on Islamic and Asian Art. Two recent initiatives include a traveling symposium aimed at contextualizing the papal vestments made of “cloth of gold" preserved in San Domenico, Perugia, within the broader artistic, historical, and cultural Eurasian scenario of the time; and the creation of “The Oriental Art Newspaper”, a new page in every issue of the Italian edition of The Art Newspaper that is dedicated to Islamic and Asian Art.

For this edition of AlMadar, the Bruschettini Foundation focuses its presentation on the era of Marco Polo, commemorating the 700th anniversary of the great Venetian traveler's death. It highlights the paths of gold established by the "Mongol network", which connected Italy and Asia during this period. These routes fostered the exchange of knowledge and maps, the adoption and adaptation of technologies, and the cultivation of trade and diplomatic gifts across the Eurasian continent. 

 The David Collection was founded in Copenhagen in AH 1364/1945 CE by C.L. David (AH 1294- 1379/1878-1960 CE), a Danish lawyer, businessman, and avid art collector. His main interests were in Danish art of the late 14th century AH/19th century CE to the mid-15th century AH/20th century CE and European decorative arts of the 12th to 13th centuries AH/17th to 18th centuries CE, particularly ceramics. This sparked his interest in Islamic ceramics. In AH 1364/1945 CE, he decided to preserve his collection and historic townhouse in central Copenhagen for posterity. In AH 1366/1947 CE both were donated to a foundation bearing his name, along with the necessary funding. Today, this foundation manages the David Collection.

At the time of his passing, David's collection of Islamic art was relatively modest, but it soon became the primary focus of acquisitions. Now, the David Collection is Denmark's only internationally recognized museum dedicated to Islamic art. The collection includes artworks from various regions and eras of the Islamic world, displayed in a permanent exhibition. Islamic art is also the focus of the scholarly Journal of the David Collection. The David Collection joins AlMadar with a selection of exceptional works of art drawn from across the Islamic world. What links the pieces, whether from 5th-century AH/11th-century CE al-Andalus or 11th-century AH/17th-century CE India, is an emphasis on symmetry as the underlying basis of their ornamentation. 

The Benaki Museum is the largest and oldest museum in Greece operating as a private foundation. It was founded in Athens in AH 1349/1930 CE by Antonis Benakis, a member of a distinguished Greek family from Alexandria, Egypt. The museum has grown considerably since then, and today the diverse Benaki collections are distributed in various buildings around Athens and beyond, each focused on a different area of Greek and world culture.

The Benaki Museum of Islamic Art houses the collection initially formed by Benakis. It has been enriched by other donations and now holds about 12,000 objects. The collection demonstrates the evolution of Islamic art from the 1st to 13th centuries AH/7th to 19th centuries CE. The collection is unique in Greece, a country situated on the crossroads of East and West. Indeed, it is the only museum in Southeast Europe dedicated to the arts of the Islamic world. In the past three decades, the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art has established itself as a center for presenting and promoting cultural and religious diversity.

After a successful collaboration in AH 1444/2023 CE, the Benaki Museum joins AlMadar to contribute to the celebration of the cultural heritage and artistic achievements of the Islamic world. The curatorial team has chosen to focus on geometry through a selection of objects that reveal its importance as a decorative motif, with its expression of infinity and rhythm, as well as its use in creating order and the division of decorative space.