Teresa Sahakian Foundation

From 1990, the Pod Blachą (Under the Tin) palace in Warsaw – next door to the city’s Royal Castle – houses the collections of the Teresa Sahakian Foundation, among which Oriental carpets from the 18th through to the 20th century predominate. The collection also includes other specimens of Oriental decorative arts as well as some European items. The present exhibition, Oriental Carpets from the Teresa Sahakian Foundation – Return of the Collection, was opened in 2008. The founder, Teresa Sahakian née Schmidt (1915-2007), was a native of Warsaw. She began assembling her collection at the inspiration of her Armenian husband, Georg Sahakian (1889-1963), an economist, polyglot, and connoisseur of Oriental art. Prior to World War II, he was affiliated with the Iranian embassy in Poland, and he was an expert with the National Museum in Warsaw.