Azerbaijan Carpet Museum

Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Milli Xalça Muzeyi, formerly called the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum) is a museum located in Baku that displays Azerbaijani carpets and rugs with historical and modern weaving techniques and materials. It has the largest collection of Azerbaijani carpets in the world. First opened on Neftchiler Avenue in 1967, it moved to a new building in the Baku seafront park in 2014.

History

The museum was established in 1967 and was initially located in the Juma Mosque in Icheri Sheher. The mosque was built in the 15th century and renovated in the 19th century. Its first exhibition was held in 1972. In 1992, after the collapse of USSR, the museum was moved to the second floor of what is now the Baku Museum Center, a building that had originally been the Lenin museum. The collection was named in honour of the carpet designer Latif Karimov.

Plans to move the collection to a new purpose-built building began in 2010, and a new building was due to open in late 2012 with a visit being made by President Ilham Aliyev in September 2013. The museum opened on 26 August 2014, as the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, dropping its much longer official title.

Museum concept

The main objectives of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum are to collect, preserve, research, demonstrate, and promote unique samples of carpet art, which is the national heritage of Azerbaijan.

Creation of the Collection

Since 1967, with the support of the country's leadership, the museum has regularly had the opportunity to expand its collection by purchasing handicraft samples from the population, folk industry, and the Azerkhalcha Scientific and Creative Production Association. It was during those years that some examples, considered masterpieces of Azerbaijani carpet art, were acquired for the museum. Thanks to the support of state officials and primarily National Leader Heydar Aliyev, a budget was allocated from the state treasury immediately after the establishment of the museum for the purchase of exhibits and the organization of expeditions to the regions. This work was led by Latif Karimov.

Leading scholars of the country took part in the collection and further development of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum’s collections: Rasim Afandiyev, Honored Art Worker and the museum’s first director Aziz Aliyev, Doctor of Historical Sciences Hasan Guliyev, Candidate of Art History Najiba Abdullayeva, Doctors of Art History, professors Roya Taghiyeva and Kubra Aliyeva.

On the instructions of the museum management, with the help of scholars, ancient carpets, carpet products, embroidery, samples of artistic metalwork, traditional costumes, etc., were acquired from the population. The Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences regularly provided the museum with various finds made of ceramic, bronze, and bone, as well as jewelry from ancient times.

Over time, the museum’s collections were also enriched with works by contemporary artists. These mainly include works by carpet artists and, later, by sculptors, ceramic artists, jewelers, and woodcarving masters.

Over the years of its activity, the museum has continuously developed and has become one of the most important fund-storages for the preservation of Azerbaijan’s national cultural heritage. As a result of numerous scientific-research expeditions carried out in various regions of Azerbaijan, the museum’s fund was enriched with the country’s tangible and intangible cultural assets. The museum vault houses more than 10,000 exhibits and includes seven collections: pile and flat-woven carpets, carpet products, artistic metalwork, textiles, costumes, embroidery, ceramics, glass, wood, paper, and jewelry. The museum stores rare items dating back to the Bronze Age, the Ancient Period, and the early Middle Ages, while the majority of the collection belongs to the 17th–20th centuries.

In the post-independence period, the museum’s funds were enriched with valuable items gifted by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan. At the same time, carpets are donated to the museum by private collectors, philanthropists, and individuals from both local and international communities. In 2013, Beverly Schiltz, the widow of Grover Schiltz, who had been a member of the Chicago Oriental Rug and Textile Society, donated two valuable Azerbaijani carpets from the collection of the deceased to the museum. One of them is the Salyan Khilasi (Shirvan, 19th century), and the other is the Ajdahali (Dragon) carpet from Karabakh, dated to the late 17th century.

In 2017, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, a rare 18th-century embroidery piece was purchased from a foreign auction house by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and donated to the museum. In the same year, Elshad Tahirov, a U.S. citizen of Azerbaijani origin, bought the Baghchada Gullar (Flowers in the Garden) carpet of the Karabakh group at an auction and donated it to the museum.

Also in 2017, for the first time in its history, the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum acquired a Shamakhi carpet dating from the late 17th to early 18th century from the Austria Auction Company.

In 2018, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation donated the Khatai and Nakhchivan carpets, dating back to the 17th century and considered among the most valuable items in the collection, to the museum.

In the same year, Italian collector Mirco Cattai donated the 19th-century Hajigayib carpet from Guba to the museum. In addition, the museum's collection was enriched with two more exhibits—the Sirt Chichi carpet from Guba and the Khila Buta carpet from Baku.

In 2019, for the first time in the museum's history, two Qajar period women's jewelry pieces were purchased from the Sotheby’s Auction House. The 19th-century Gonagkend carpet was donated to the museum by U.S. citizens Hillary-Dumas Jones and Jay Jones.