Carpets: The Past Beneath Our Feet

With Dorothy Armstrong, Honorary Research Fellow, and Francesca Leoni, Curator of Islamic Art
This event takes place in-person in the Headley Lecture Theatre and online via Zoom

This event will include a talk and in-conversation based on Dorothy Armstrong's book Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets, which focuses on the extraordinary stories in the biographies of carpets as they pass through time.

The talk will include an explosive scandal in the carpet world, when May Beattie and John Paul Getty warred over the authenticity of one of the tycoon’s carpets.

Other carpets discussed will include a Persian carpet transformed into the war vest of 16th century Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Taiko of the successful TV series Shogun, and a series of embarrassing fakes of a 17th-century carpet sold to great European museums in the early 20th century.

This event is part of our Connect & Collaborate season of events.
Tickets are £8 each and booking is essential.