World's pearls to be exhibited in Istanbul

As one of the highlights of the Qatar Turkey 2015 Year of Culture, the international exhibition ?Pearls, Jewels from the Sea? opens at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in IstanbulThe Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts host the ?Pearls, Jewels from the Sea? exhibition featuring more than 100 pieces.

A highlight of the Qatar-Turkey 2015 Year of Culture initiative, the exhibition, the pieces of which were collected and curated during the last 10 years, was already shown in Brazil, the U.K. and Japan, and gained great success.

The Qatar Turkey 2015 Year of Culture, which is being held under the patronage of Qatar Museums? Chairperson Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, is a year-long cultural exchange program dedicated to connecting people in Qatar and Turkey through culture, community and sport. 

The exhibition celebrates a wide array of stunning objects of historical interest to both countries.

The collection consists of pearls as well as shells, tiaras, lockets, brooches and necklaces, mostly from the Gulf region.

 
Curator Hubert Bari, who is also the contributor of the 2013 book ?Pearls,? said when talking about Gulf countries, people immediately think ?gas and oil.?

?Nobody remembers people had glories in the past with another commodity. It was pearls.

?During more than 5,000 years in Qatar and Bahrain as well, thousands of people dove for pearls and an entire economy was based on this.

Pearls are a crucial part of Qatar?s heritage and an important feature of much Ottoman jewelry.  Most pearls from the Gulf were sold to Constantinople, which would later become Istanbul, for the sultans. Topkap? Place was full of Gulf pearls in the past,? he said. 

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