Most Recent
Marketplace'Polonaise' Carpets: Inside Three Decades of Record-Breaking Persian Carpet Auction Prices
'Polonaise' carpets have dominated Persian carpet auctions for decades, from King Umberto II's silk carpet to the record-breaking Pommersfelden rugs. This review traces their unrivalled price history — one glimpse into HALI's rich archive of sale and provenance data.
Daniel Shaffer·6 min
MarketplacePast and present veneration
Milan's Galleria Moshe Tabibnia has just announced that it will exhibit at Frieze Masters in London this October — prompting us to look back at HALI's last review of the gallery, originally published in HALI 214.
Ben Evans·4 min
ReviewsBeyond the Silk Road, Across the Seas: Inside the 9th IASSRT Conference
Scholars from Asia, the Americas and Europe met at UC Berkeley for IASSRT's 9th conference, exploring Silk Road textiles, ikat, chintz and trade across centuries.
Joan Hart·4 min
FeaturesFrom Bali to Timor: 'Woven Threads' celebrates eastern Indonesian textiles
'Woven Threads: Masterpieces of Textile Art From Bali to Timor' explores the extraordinary textile traditions of eastern Indonesia through two significant Swiss collections dedicated to this remarkable artistic heritage
Fiona Kerlogue·4 min
NewsV&A announces landmark Chintz exhibition for 2027 in collaboration with the Karun Thakar collection
The V&A's landmark Chintz exhibition opens 18 September 2027, uniting its collection with Karun Thakar's, celebrating South Indian makers as major artists in design history.
HALI magazine·1 min
NewsHALI London returns to celebrate 50 years of HALI Magazine
HALI London will take place from 18–24 October 2027 across a range of venues throughout the city
HALI magazine·2 min
News
V&A announces landmark Chintz exhibition for 2027 in collaboration with the Karun Thakar collection
The V&A's landmark Chintz exhibition opens 18 September 2027, uniting its collection with Karun Thakar's, celebrating South Indian makers as major artists in design history.
HALI London returns to celebrate 50 years of HALI Magazine
HALI London will take place from 18–24 October 2027 across a range of venues throughout the city
A Safavid masterpiece at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
One of the finest surviving Safavid carpets took centre stage in Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Features
LACMA's new David Geffen galleries
The buzz created by the new David Geffen Galleries at LACMA has not all been positive. However, the radical approach, with the emphasis on fluidity, shows confidence in both the curatorial team and the intelligence of visitors
Palestinian dress preserves the memory of a vanished world
Few lands have been through as much upheaval as Palestine, and its proud embroidery tradition is now a culture in exile. A collecting couple reveals that the Palestinian past really is another country-clinging to survival through its textiles
The Mazarin Tapestry and the Coronation Carpet at Edward VII's Coronation
These 16th-century weavings both appeared at the coronation of King Edward VII. They are linked by the schemes of powerful art dealers, who traded masterworks with famous American industrialists and their heirs
Reviews
Beyond the Silk Road, Across the Seas: Inside the 9th IASSRT Conference
Scholars from Asia, the Americas and Europe met at UC Berkeley for IASSRT's 9th conference, exploring Silk Road textiles, ikat, chintz and trade across centuries.
Interwoven at HAB Budapest paired historic carpets with contemporary art
At HAB, the Hungarian Art & Business centre in Budapest, 'Interwoven: Stories Thread by Thread' brought antique carpets and contemporary paintings into direct conversation, asking how textiles and canvases record memory, belief and cultural experience across centuries
Aymara Weavings: Indigenous Andean Textiles at the Saint Louis Art Museum
A landmark exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum presents Aymara weavings from the Bolivian highlands, revealing how Indigenous artists preserved and reinvented ancient textile traditions through the colonial and early republican periods
Marketplace
'Polonaise' Carpets: Inside Three Decades of Record-Breaking Persian Carpet Auction Prices
'Polonaise' carpets have dominated Persian carpet auctions for decades, from King Umberto II's silk carpet to the record-breaking Pommersfelden rugs. This review traces their unrivalled price history — one glimpse into HALI's rich archive of sale and provenance data.
Past and present veneration
Milan's Galleria Moshe Tabibnia has just announced that it will exhibit at Frieze Masters in London this October — prompting us to look back at HALI's last review of the gallery, originally published in HALI 214.
A market for Modernist carpets
A recent sale in Paris featured several carpets and rugs designed by Ivan da Silva Bruhns for the Maharaja of Indore. Using this auction as a starting point, Daniel Shaffer looks at the high end of the market for artist-designed Modernist carpets
Issue 228Summer 2026Summer 2026 — Textile Exhibitions
HALI 228 explores little-known Kazakh embroidered suede robes in a long-awaited feature. Lebanese rug-weaving traditions get their own spotlight too, while Palestinian dress preserves the memory of a vanished world.
- FeatureKazakh embroidered suede robes
- Thread of timeTwo 16th-century weavings linked by powerful art dealers
- Anatomy of an objectAn inscribed Caucasian dowry rug and its matrimonial symbolism
- FeatureLebanese rug-weaving traditions
- FeaturePalestinian dress preserves the memory of a vanished world
An editorial letter, each Thursday.
Long-form reading recommendations, auction previews, and reports from museum floors — from the HALI editorial desk.