Adolph Loewi and the Oriental Carpet Trade in Venice Between the 19th and 20th Centuries
abstract
The massive export of works of art that characterized the entire Italian peninsula, especially in the years bridging the nineteenth and twentieth century, included also the transfer abroad of Islamic art and products, even more specifically, of Oriental rugs. In this Venice, strong of centuries-old relationship with the Middle East, played a particularly active role and has become a favorite destination for collectors, antique dealers, amateurs and European merchants, who in those years came in the city with the express purpose of being ready in case to realize a good business. One of the prominent figures in the Venetian art market and particularly active in the sale of Oriental rugs and, above all, of Islamic textiles, was Adolph Loewi, one of the most notable personality in the vast landscape that was the trade of works of art in Venice in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.