Word: topkapi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...itself on the international circuit of blockbuster art shows. Its current offering: Splendors of the Ottoman Sultans, an opulent array of 274 possessions of the militarily ruthless yet artistically keen Turks who ruled a wedge of Europe and Asia for nearly six centuries. Gathered from the legendary Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul and other Ottoman collections, it is the largest show of Ottoman art ever to travel beyond Turkey's borders...
...Ramesses, the center reconstructed a 47-ton colossus of Ramesses the Great at a cost of $125,000, then barged it over from Memphis, Egypt. For Splendors, it has not only restored many of the objects, but has also given seed money to establish a conservation laboratory at the Topkapi Palace Museum...
Some of the works in the show, such as the harem carriage -- a gilt coach designed with lattice windows so that women could look out discreetly -- have never traveled outside Turkey. The exhibition's most stunning item is the Topkapi Dagger, featured in the 1964 movie Topkapi. Created in the 1740s as a gift for the Shah of Persia, who was assassinated before he could take possession, it is a sword-length blade that is more a showpiece than a weapon. Who would want to bloody a knife with a hilt containing three walnut-size emeralds and a diamond-covered...