La collezione Davide Halevim

‘Kings and nobles used to take carpets and tapestries with them on their journeys. The greatest artists designed tapestries. In the 16th and 17th centuries, there was no civilian residence that did not display plenty of textile decorations. To own a carpet or tapestry means stepping into history. This is Davide Halevim’s understanding.’ These are the words of Vittorio Sgarbi in his contribution to the volume, which celebrates the collector Davide Halevim and his extensive collection of carpets and tapestries. In fact, as Alberto Levi also writes, Halevim was the ‘progenitor and forerunner of a generation of antiquarians who revolutionised the image of the art carpet’, also establishing the parameters that allow us to distinguish between art and craft carpet, and the same applies to tapestries. The book includes photographs of the collection and, in the appendix, a catalogue with detailed descriptions of the carpets and tapestries.