This round table brings together academics and museum professionals to consider the changing status of historic Islamic collections in European and North American museums. This, the first of two debates, coincides with a new staging of some of the Iranian works of art in the collection of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum to mark Nowruz (Persian New Year celebrated on vernal equinox across West and Central Asia). The displays of Islamic art acquired by Calouste Gulbenkian in the early 20^th century since the Museum named after him opened in 1969. In today’s world, they resonate differently and there is clear potential for new encounters and understandings.

Sussan Babaie (The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London) moderates the first debate, “Islamic Art in the Museum Today: A Controversy”, with Amy Landau (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore) and Stefan Weber (The Islamic Art Museum, Berlin)

The second debate, “Islamic Art in the Museum Today: An Opportunity” will take place on 29 June 2017, program to be timely announced.