The Weaving Art Museum announces the installation of its eighth annual online exhibition: “The Wealth Of Kings-Masterpiece Persian Carpets.” The exhibition can be viewed at weavingartmuseum.org.

The Weaving Art Museum and Research Institute (WAMRI) was established in 1997 and is a fully accredited nonprofit public charity. The museum’s primary mission is to raise appreciation for mas-terpiece Near Eastern historic weavings, and over the past eight years our annual online exhibitions have attracted tens of thousands of visitors. A number of these presentations have not only made available to the general public photographs and descriptions of previously unknown woven masterpieces, they have also shed new light into their history and genesis.

The present exhibition, “The Wealth of Kings” focuses attention on a number of early carpets made during the golden age of Persian carpet production, circa 1450-1650. The photographs reveal the beautiful designs, splendid colors and great artistic and technical achievement these weavings represent.

Though many of them have suffered the ravages of time, particularly from use as ordinary floor carpets, they still convey the magnificent opulence that characterized the lifestyles of the kings and khans they once served. Many are now fragmentary, having been cut down to remove worn or damaged areas, or to re-duce their great proportions into more manageable sizes. Others are even smaller pieces saved from carpet dealer scrap heaps by knowledgeable and observant repairers and collectors.

Examples like these almost never come onto the market. They are truly rare and the only place to find them is in the collections of some of the world’s greatest art museums.

While there is no shortage of books or articles dealing with these carpets, this presentation will enable viewers to begin to understand them from both the historic and cultural framework they evolved in, as well as how they relate to each other individually and as groups.

For information, weaving artmuseum.org.