Harvard Persian Art Sells for $34 Million

When Stuart Cary Welch ’50—who served as a curator of Islamic and Indian art at the Harvard Art Museum until 1987—died in 2008, he left behind an extensive private collection of Persian and Indian paintings and drawings.

On Wednesday, part of that collection sold at a Sotheby’s London auction for about £21 million—over four times the estimated sale price.

Welch amassed his large collection of Islamic and Indian art at a time when there was limited demand for art from these cultures.

“He looked very closely at art historical traditions and fields that many people in America weren’t paying attention to at that time. As a result of all that close study and looking, he was able to acquire works of art that in many ways, many people didn’t consider to be important,” said Thomas W. Lentz, director of the Harvard Art Museum.

The collection, titled “The Stuart Cary Welch Collection: Part 1. Arts of the Islamic World,” was originally estimated to sell for £3.5 to 5.3 million for 164 lots. After Wednesday’s auction, 154 lots sold for about £21 million.

Sotheby’s estimated that Wednesday’s sale was worth 34 million in U.S. dollars.

The auction also broke a Sotheby’s London record for Islamic art, after a folio from “Shahnameh”—an illustrated page from a 16th century manuscript—sold for £7.4 million to an anonymous bidder.

“The sale of the Shahnameh leaf today represented a rare opportunity for institutional and private collectors of Islamic Art who competed from across the globe to acquire this unique work of extraordinary quality and beauty,” said Edward Gibbs, senior director of Sotheby’s Middle East Department in a press release.

The work depicts Faridun, a king from a Persian epic, in the guise of a dragon testing his sons. It is made from “ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper,” according to the Sotheby’s website.

Lentz—who was taught by Welch while studying as a graduate student at Harvard—said that the “Shahnameh” is the Persian National epic, which was originally written in the beginning of the 11th century, and reproduced and illustrated for centuries in Persian art.

“This particular version [of the manuscript] is considered the grandest and most luxurious. The manuscript originally had over 250 separate illustrations that have now been broken up and separated into many different public and private collections, and this particular painting was one of the best in there.”

Welch was a longtime lecturer in Harvard’s History of Art and Architecture department. Lentz remembered him as a man who was a very passionate and engaged teacher and collector.

“The art museums at Harvard have an incredibly strong Persian and Indian painting and drawing collection, and much of that was shaped by Cary Welch. If you’re interested in this type of art, Harvard has a great collection here,” Lentz said.