Hagop Kevorkian
Hagop Kevorkian | |
---|---|
Յակոբ Գէորգեան | |
Born | 1872 |
Died |
Hagop Kevorkian (Armenian: Յակոբ Գէորգեան; 1872 – 1962) was an Armenian-American archeologist, connoisseur of art, and collector. Originally from Kayseri, and a graduate of the American Robert College in Istanbul, he settled in New York City in the late 19th century, and was responsible for drawing greater attention to Near Eastern and Islamic artifacts in the United States.
Career
Kevorkian carried out excavations in
In 1929 he acquired at auction the Mughal album of calligraphy and painting that became known as the Kevorkian Album, now renamed "The Shah Jahan Album" by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (rather confusingly, as there is at least one other album called this). The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C. now hold elements of the Kevorkian Album in their collections.[1] An auction of some of his collection occurred in 1970 at the Parke-Bernet Galleries.[2]
In a study of the commodification of Islamic antiques and their entry into museum collections, Mercedes Volait identified Hagop Kevorkian as one of a set of "renowned Armenian art dealers in Paris" which also included Dikran Khan Kelekian (1868-1951), and Antoine Brimo of Aleppo (1872-1862). She argued that Kevorkian and others shifted the trade in Islamic antiquities from Damascus and Cairo to Paris, London and New York, while enabling the entry of objects into collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and more.[3]
Philanthropy
The Brooklyn Art Museum's Kevorkian Gallery displays the Assyrian reliefs he donated to the institution.
After Kevorkian's death, his foundation established the Kevorkian Chair of Iranian Studies at Columbia University. New York University has a center named after him that houses its Middle Eastern studies department and library.[4] The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University was created in 1966 to foster the interdisciplinary study of the modern and contemporary Middle East and to enhance public understanding of the region.[5]
He was a major benefactor of the
References
- .
- ^ Parke-Bernet Galleries (1970). Property of the Kevorkian Foundation, Parke-Bernet Galleries, May 9, 1970 Auction. New York City.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - OCLC 1242019652.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ The Hagop Kevorkian Center
- ^ The Hagop Kevorkian Center, National Resource Centers Archived July 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Ralph Minasian and the Hagop Kevorkian Fund". Expedition. 60 (1): 102. 2018.
- ^ "Expedition Magazine". penn.museum. 1968. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
External links
- The Emperors' album: images of Mughal India, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material collected by Kevorkian