Kayhan: Museums should become centers of attraction

Muharrem Kayhan's interests in the heritage of Caria and Ionia started in mid-1980s, and his 30-year journey led him to one of the most significant collections of the period. The former chairman of Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) has also been involved in restoration of an Ottoman mosque, Isabey, in his hometown of Ayd?n.  

How did the exhibition "Testimonies of Anatolian Antiquity" come about?

Lucien [Arkas of Arkas Holding] knew that I was a collector of coins. A team from the Arkas Art Center came to see the collection and when they saw the whole picture, they wanted to display both the coins and the other objects. We worked a year on this, to select what would be on display and how to do it.

What started you on your long journey as a collector?

I was always fond of reading of history from early on, but I think the main trigger was the fact that every day, going from home to work, I passed through antique Ionia. It would have been strange if I had remained oblivious to the heritage around it. So I started looking for the traces, for the documents that would give me more knowledge of the heritage of these lands.

And you focused on coins?

When I first started my collection in the 1980s, the first items were not coins. But I was drawn to ancient Greek coinage and since the end of the 1980s, I have collected about 2,000 coins. It was catalogued in two volumes in Sylloge Nummorum Graeocorum series, which are now standard reference books in the domain [of coins]. 

I saw that coinage was much neglected in Turkey. This is because they are difficult to display. Coins are more than collection items that are pretty to own and to show; they require a real knowledge of the time of the...