Exceptional Paintings from the Personal Collection of Prince & Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan

Exceptional Paintings from the Personal Collection of Prince & Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan

Sale Overview

Christie's are deeply honoured to be offering ninety-five exceptional works from the personal collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan. These paintings were among their personal favourites, selected by them to decorate the walls of Chateau de Bellerive, their home on the shores of Lake Geneva. They include Indian, Persian, and Ottoman works, featuring examples by celebrated artists such as Dust Muhammad, Basawan, Ghulam Ali Khan, Bishan Singh, Reza Abbasi, and Levni, as well as paintings from iconic groups such as the St Petersburg Muraqqa', the Fraser Album and the Polier albums.


All are works of great artistic presence and beauty, qualities that attracted the discerning eyes of Prince Sadruddin and Princess Catherine Aga Khan over the decades of their collecting. The majority of these works were acquired between the early 1960s and the 1980s, a period when a wealth of important material was available on the market from the great collections of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Many have been studied and published by leading scholars, and have featured in ground-breaking exhibitions. For their exceptional beauty, rarity, historical importance, and provenance, these works are of a calibre rarely found in today’s market.

Discover the auction in person at our King Street galleries from 24 to 28 October. Highlights will tour to our New York galleries, 12 to 17 September; Zurich 23 to 26 September; and to Christie’s Dubai from 6 to 10 October.

Auction times
28 Oct 11:00 AM (GMT)

Our specialist’s selection

Brought to you by

Sara Plumbly

Sara Plumbly

Director, Head of Department | Islamic and Indian Art

Sara Plumbly is Director and Head of the Islamic and Indian Art department at Christie’s King Street. She joined the company in 2006, and has worked on the department’s biannual sales of Islamic art since that time. She has been responsible for the successful King Street sales since that time, including collections such as the Library of the Late Djafar Ghazi and the Private Collection Donated to Benefit the University of Oxford. She has also overseen the sale of several record breaking pieces, including the important early Iznik bowl that sold for £1.4 million in April 2014.

Sara studied Arabic and Persian at Durham University and Arabic for another year at the American University in Cairo. Whilst in Egypt she also worked at the Gayer Anderson Museum, a 17th century house in the heart of Islamic Cairo. She subsequently completed her Master’s Degree in Islamic Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford, focussing for her thesis on the restoration and conservation of architectural monuments in Cairo, particularly those of the Fatimid period.

She has lived and travelled extensively across the Middle East and North Africa, including particularly long periods in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

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