Hagop Kevorkian ( hy, Յակոբ Գեւորգեան; 1872 – 1962) was an Armenian-American archeologist, connoisseur of art, and collector. Originally from
Kayseri, and a graduate of the American
Robert College in
Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
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, he settled in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
in the late 19th century, and was responsible for drawing greater attention to Near Eastern and Islamic artifacts in the United States.
Career
Kevorkian carried out excavations in
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, in Sultanabad from 1903 and at the medieval city of
Rey from around 1907, and assembled an outstanding collection of
Oriental art
The history of Asian art includes a vast range of arts from various cultures, regions, and religions across the continent of Asia. The major regions of Asia include Central, East, South, Southeast, and West Asia.
Central Asian art primarily co ...
, especially
Islamic and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
. He organized the exhibition of Islamic ceramics in London in 1911. The works excavated under his supervision were shown in New York in 1914. Major sales of Islamic pieces from his collection, including lacquer doors and tile panels from
Isfahan, books and paintings, carpets and ceramics, were held in the 1920s at the Anderson Gallery, New York.
In 1929 he acquired at auction the
Mughal album of
calligraphy and painting that became known as the Kevorkian Album, now renamed "The
Shah Jahan Album" by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
(rather confusingly, as there is at least one other album called this). The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the
Freer Gallery
The Freer Gallery of Art is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. focusing on Asian art. The Freer and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the United States. The Freer and S ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
now hold elements of the Kevorkian Album in their collections.
An auction of some of his collection occurred in 1970 at the
Parke-Bernet Galleries.
In a study of the commodification of Islamic antiques and their entry into museum collections, Mercedes Volait identified Hagop Kevorkian as one of a set of "renowned Armenian art dealers in Paris" which also included Dikran Khan Kelekian (1868-1951), and Antoine Brimo of
Aleppo (1872-1862). She argued that Kevorkian and others shifted the trade in Islamic antiquities from Damascus and Cairo to Paris, London and New York, while enabling the entry of objects into collections at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
, the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, and more.
Philanthropy
The
Brooklyn Art Museum's Kevorkian Gallery displays the
Assyrian reliefs he donated to the institution.
After Kevorkian's death, his foundation established the Kevorkian Chair of Iranian Studies at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
has a center named after him that houses its Middle Eastern studies department and library. The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University was created in 1966 to foster the interdisciplinary study of the modern and contemporary Middle East and to enhance public understanding of the region.
He was a major benefactor of the
. Ninety-nine objects in the Penn Museum collections came from Kevorkian, either through purchase or, later, donation. He established a fund, the Kevorkian Fund, in the 1950s, which funded the expeditions of the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
to
Hasanlu
Teppe Hasanlu or Hasanlu Tepe ( fa, تپه حسنلو) is an archeological site of an ancient city''The Cambridge History of Iran'' (ed. by W.B. Fischer, Ilya Gershevitch, Ehsan Yarshster). Cambridge University Press, 1993. . Pages 57–58, 138. ...
, a site in northwest Iran inhabited from the 6th millennium BC, which Dr. Robert J. Dyson Jr., excavated. After his death the Kevorkian Fund also supported a visiting lectureship in Iranian art and archaeology and an international speaker series at the Penn Museum.
References
External links
The Emperors' album: images of Mughal India an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material collected by Kevorkian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kevorkian, Hagop
Armenian art collectors
Armenian American art collectors
American people of Armenian descent
Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the United States
University of Pennsylvania people
People from Kayseri
Armenians from the Ottoman Empire
1872 births
1962 deaths
Robert College alumni
American orientalists
Armenian archaeologists
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology