Mahboubian Gallery in London
Click here to download this article.
In 1970 Houshang established the Mahboubian Gallery in London, in order to pursue his objectives of expanding and assembling his family collections in one place. These consisted of the artefacts which were discovered in Iran by his father, who had exported them to France, Switzerland and the USA between 1900 and 1930, as well as other pieces purchased on the European markets.
Other than dealing in antiquities, one of the most successful aspects of the gallery’s business in London was the completion of the Houshang Mahboubian Family Collection. Every piece in the collection, dating from 3000 BC to 700 AD, underwent various cleaning processes by specialist experts. This task permitted the inscriptions and the intricate patterns on the art pieces to become visible and legible. Assistance from various British and European experts and scholars in deciphering the different ancient inscriptions on the artefacts made the task of classification possible according to their respective civilisations and the periods of their production. Finally, after all these long and painstaking processes, the collections were ready to be published for historical records.
