World’s costliest rug may fetch $20m

The world’s most expensive rug may fetch $20 million when it goes under the hammer later this month, the Daily Telegraph, UK, reported.

The Pearl Carpet of Baroda was created using an estimated two million natural seed pearls farmed from the Persian Gulf.

It has a starting price of $5 million and will become a record breaker if it sells, beating the $4.45 million for a silk Persian rug in New York, at Christie’s in 2008.

Sotheby’s will handle the sale of the spectacular rug and the auction will be the first for their new offices in Doha. According to the Sotheby’s website, the auction will be held on March 19.

Commissioned by the maharaja of Baroda in the 18th century, the Pearl Carpet is embossed with gold set diamonds, rubies, and emeralds in their hundreds. The centrepiece of the exquisite rug are three large round rosettes put together using table cut diamonds set in silvered gold.

Originally to be gifted to the tomb of the prophet Mohammed in Medina, the rug never made it to its intended destination as Gaekwad Kande Rao, the maharaja, died before it could be delivered.

Designed to echo a rug that exists in the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Baroda replica has remained with the princely family since the maharaja’s death, briefly appearing at exhibitions such as the 1985 landmark exhibition ‘India’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Mary Jo Otsea, worldwide director of rugs and carpets at Sotheby’s, says, “It is fitting that a historic object as magnificent and unique as the Pearl Carpet of Baroda is a major highlight of our inaugural series of auctions in Doha.

“The carpet has never appeared at an auction before. The sale represents an unparalleled opportunity to acquire an extraordinarily significant work of art. I am delighted that Middle Eastern collectors can view this stunning work.”