International carpet dealer Chemouel Sameyeh set his career in
Singapore with the ambitious aim of establishing the city as the
regional center for fine Oriental carpets. His words are backed
with finance; he has invested several millions of dollars.
He has a collection of 500 tastefully decorated antique Persian,
Caucasian, Anatolian Central Asian rugs and carpets, village and
master workshop rugs in wool and silk and European tapestries.
The Iranian expert
from Hamburg, Germany, the largest carpet warehousing and
distribution center in Europe, has brought in investment,
collectible, rare and antique Oriental carpets, as well as
antique Caucasian and French tapestries from Europe and
elsewhere.
Sameyeh also offers
his expertise to dealers and collectors and taps his
international connections for rare old and antique carpets on
his clients' behalf. Caucasian carpets
are coming back into favor around the world, but 95 per cent of
buyers are going to acquire older or antique Oriental carpets
for collection and investment, says Sameyeh. Carpets over 100
years old, termed antique, are very scarce in the world and are
traded between two specialist dealers or connoisseurs, or are
sold at auctions.
Sameyeh is
concerned about the fact that without the benefit of correct
advice, buyers have purchased reproductions instead of original
antique carpets. There are a lot of copies in Singapore he
reveals with a note of solemnity. "I can spot copies made in
India, Romania, Pakistan, Albania, Afghanistan, copies of
original Iranian designs. This is wrong because they make you
think you are buying old Iranian carpets." With carpet
collecting gaining popularity quickly here, this practice should
be checked.
The way for
local collectors to become more discerning is for them to be
exposed to more top quality carpets here. The interdependence of
collectors and dealers in building a knowledge bank and
acquiring better quality carpets & collections in Iran, America,
Europe and elsewhere cannot be over emphasized. Sameyeh
advocates that local auctioneers bring in "a more varied
selection of carpets, which should be more valuable and more
interesting, with more of the antique feel".
Sameyeh has a
business degree from an American University in Teheran and has
30 years' experience of organizing fine and rare Oriental
exhibition sales in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Hanover, America,
Africa, Mexico, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. He has staged
special exhibitions for President Bongo of Gabon, the President
of Zaire and the President of the Ivory Cast. Sameyeh is
prepared for initial local response to the unfamiliar concept of
acquiring old and antique carpets by plugging into the
international carpet circuit. "If they understand my concept, it
would be very easy to sell or buy. You have to bring them to the
right level - it's very, very hard. Of course, I offer my
expertise to both dealer and buyer."
Sameyeh has
observed that other Asians have also developed interest in
Iranian carpets. When looking for new carpets, they come to
Singapore. "Of course if they are looking for high class antique
pieces as investment or as collector's items, they do not come
to Singapore because nobody here has them. So I am the one who
will try to bring more collector's items here to make them
popular for Singapore first, then for the other Asian countries,
New Zealand and Australia. I want to make Singapore the center
of the Asian antique carpet market."
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