| Kelekian, Dikran G., 1868-1951 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| type | Dealer/Gallery Collector | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| dates | 1868-1951 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| city | New York City | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| state | NY | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| other cities | Anatolia, Turkey; Istanbul, Turkey; Paris, France; | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| sex | M | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| history |
Dikran G. Kelekian was an Ottoman-born Armenian art dealer and connoisseur, known for his role in introducing Islamic, Persian, and Coptic art to collectors and museums in the United States and Europe. Widely regarded as the “dean of antiquities” among New York art dealers, Dikran Kelekian played a central role in shaping Henry Walters’s Coptic, Early Christian, and Classical collections (which became part of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore) as well as George Blumenthal’s Gothic collection. After opening an art and antiquarian business first in Paris in 1891 and then in Constantinople the following year with his brother, Kevork Kelekian, he came to the U.S. in 1893 as commissioner of the Persian Pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Soon after, he established the gallery Le Musée de Bosphore in New York and became a trusted source for Islamic and Near Eastern works of art. His clients included collectors Henry Walters, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., H. O. and Louisine Havemeyer, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Charles Lang Freer, as well as museums around the world. Kelekian collected and promoted the artwork of his friends Mary Cassatt, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Milton Avery, Marsden Hartley, and other contemporary artists. Kelekian’s son, Charles Dikran Kelekian (1900–1982), worked closely with him in the business and shared his passion for collecting, taking over the business after his father's death in 1951. |
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| decades | 1880-1890 1890-1900 1900-1910 1910-1920 1920-1930 1930-1940 1940-1950 |
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| website | http://www.archive.org/details/klkiancollec00kelerich | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| updated | 11/24/2025 10:11:49 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| research links |
Search FRESCO (Frick Research Catalog Online) Search Worldcat Search Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) Search Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) Search Wikidata Entry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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