The temporary exhibition, “Voices from Our Collective Past: The Artistry of 19th Century Armenian Carpets from the James Tufenkian’s Collection,” has drawn more than 100,000 visitors since its opening at the History Museum of Armenia over a year ago.

At the closing ceremony on January 21, David Poghosyan, Director of the History Museum of Armenia, noted that the exhibition was originally scheduled to run for one year, but was extended by three months due to its success.

Davit Poghosyan

Photo: Mediamax

“This was a very important contribution to Armenia’s cultural life. This was first such kind of exhibition from the Diaspora with such a long period and this kind of scale. The effective collaboration between the museum and James Tufenkian serves as an important example and introduces a new format for cooperation,” David Poghosyan said, speaking with reporters.

“I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to display my collection for now 15 months in the History Museum of Armenia,” said James Tufenkian, founder of Tufenkian Company, carpet expert and collector.

He emphasized that this was the first public exhibition of his collection.

Davit Poghosyan and James Tufenkian

Photo: Mediamax

“I would say that it wasn’t until last year that I felt the collection was complete enough that I really wanted to exhibit it. I have maybe 100 pieces in my collection, most of the time they are just rolled up somewhere. And the dream of every collector, the dream of me also, is to be

able to have an exhibition. I am happy to be able to do it in a great institution like this. This is really my dream as a collector of Armenian carpets.”

James Tufenkian

Photo: Mediamax

James Tufenkian hopes that this exhibition will allow people to better understand the history of Armenian carpet weaving and the wonderful works created by Armenian women in the 19th century.

“These are really works of art and I can just tell you that their Caucasian carpets in general and Armenian carpets in particular are very much valued in the West. I know Native Americans are famous for making carpet blankets hand woven and actually people don’t know that the designs were taken from Armenian carpets which were brought to America in the 19th century,” he noted.

James Tufenkian believes that there is a political significance to this collection and to collecting Armenian carpets:

“For many years the Turks have been working to try to appropriate Armenian carpets as being Turkish. And they tried to convince the scholars and all the people in the collecting community that Armenians did not weave carpets before. It is a big purpose of my collection, exhibiting it in places like here, to demonstrate that Armenians were the most important force in carpet weaving in the Caucasus.”

James Tufenkian

Photo: Mediamax

He also sadly admits that not enough research has been done to present Armenian carpet weaving culture.

“There is one fantastic book by a German professor about Christian carpets. It documents very well the history of Armenians’ role in carpet weaving throughout history going back a couple thousand years. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen other scholars pick up on that work and expand on it. But that’s absolutely something that I would like to sponsor as time goes on,” Tufenkian noted, adding that his dream is to have a museum of Armenian carpets in Yerevan and a research facility along with it.

Arpi Jilavyan

Photos by Emin Aristakesyan