Israel defers plan to sell rare Islamic antiquities

occupied jerusalem — A museum in Israel postponed its planned auction of dozens of rare Islamic antiquities after word of the sale sparked a public uproar.

The L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art said it was putting the auction on hold after a positive dialogue with Israel’s Culture Ministry and in response to a personal appeal from the country’s figurehead president, Reuven Rivlin.

In a statement released by the museum, the Hermann de Stern Foundation, the institution’s primary donor, noted that the collection was privately owned and the sale was permitted under the law.

“The foundation’s management hopes that the postponement will make it possible to reach agreements that will also be acceptable to the Culture Ministry in the coming weeks,” it said.

The museum had planned to put 190 pieces on the block at Sotheby’s in London on Tuesday and to auction off more than 60 antique watches and timepieces later this week. The rare pieces are expected to fetch several million dollars.

The Culture Ministry had condemned the sale and vowed to do everything it can to prevent it.

Rivlin said he was following the issue with “concern” and called on authorities to prevent the sale of such cultural assets.

The items up for bidding includes a 15th-century helmet designed to be worn over a turban and decorated with inlaid silver calligraphy, a 12th-century bowl depicting a Persian prince and intricate antique carpets from Egypt and what is now Turkey.

The watch auction is to include three watches designed by the famed Parisian horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet, whose timepieces adorned European royalty in the 17th and 18th centuries, including Marie Antoinette.

Sotheby’s did not return a message seeking comment.

The museum was established in the 1960s by Vera Salomons, the scion of a British-Jewish aristocratic family, and named for Leo Arie Mayer, a prominent scholar of the Middle East. It houses thousands of Islamic artefacts dating from the 7th to the 19th centuries. It also has a collection of antique watches handed down by the Salomons family, including dozens designed by Breguet.

The Holy Land was part of various Islamic empires for more than 1,000 years, and the museum aims to promote understanding between Jews and mostly Muslim Arabs, who make up around 20 per cent of Israel’s population.

The museum has been closed for much of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the auction has reportedly been in the works for two years, and the popular museum is widely believed to be financially stable. —