Artworks on show

The Gypsy

An oil painting on canvas. The Gypsy is a piece of art by French painter Edouard Manet, one of the first 19th-century artists known to have painted modern life. The painting itself is part of a bigger etching the painter created in 1867; he later selected fragments and converted them into three different paintings.

Bindu

This is an acrylic painting on canvas by Syed Haider Raza, an Indian painter who lived and worked in France for a large part of his life. Bindu was painted after he visited India to find deeper authenticity to his work, and rediscovered his Indian ethnography.

Archaic Sphinx

The sculpture dates back to sixth century BCE, and shows the sphinx, a winged monster in Greek mythology with a woman’s head and a lion’s body. This piece itself is made of shell limestone, and originated in Greece or Great Greece.

Shiva Dancing

The figurine depicts Shiva, one of the principal deities in Hinduism and protector of the sacred Hindu texts, the Vedas. This bronze piece was created using lost-wax casting, and originated in Asia in the second half of the 10th century.

Turban Helmet

The helmet dates back to the second half of the 15th century, and was likely created in the Ottoman Empire or in the Aq Qoyunlu empire that ruled present-day Azerbaijan, Armenia, and parts of Turkey and Iran at the time. It is made of steel, inlaid with silver, and has traces of gold.

Ottoman dagger

This steel and gold dagger dates back to the 600-year Ottoman Empire, and was likely crafted in the city of Herat in present-day Afghanistan, or at Tabriz in the northwestern Iranian province of Iranian Azerbaijan. It is 26 centimetres long and has a damascened blade.

Mother-of-pearl ewer

This mother-of-pearl ewer was crafted circa 1640, and is attributed to Italian engraver and possible-goldsmith, Orazio Scoppa. It has a gilt copper mounting, and is encrusted with turquoises and gamets. The ewer was collected from Gujarat in India.

A Young Emir Studying

This painting is by Osman Hamdi Bey, an Ottoman administrator, intellectual, art expert and archaeologist who was also a prominent and pioneering painter. He painted this colourful oil-on-canvas work in 1878, most likely in Istanbul.