37 Facts About Nasser Khalili

Sir Nasser David Khalili KCSS is a British scholar, collector, and philanthropist based in London.

Nasser Khalili has spent tens of millions of pounds on conserving, researching, and documenting the collections, publishing more than seventy volumes of catalogues and research so far.

Nasser Khalili is known for the purchase and renovation of a number of large properties in London and Glasgow.

Nasser Khalili's donations funded the creation of a research centre in Islamic art at the University of Oxford as well as the first university chair in the subject, at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Nasser Khalili is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and has taken part in United Nations and UNESCO events on the theme of peace between cultures.

Nasser Khalili is the recipient of the Legion of Honour, presented by French President Francois Hollande.

Nasser Khalili is a trustee of the City of Jerusalem and has received knighthoods from two Popes.

Nasser Khalili received a knighthood in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours "for services to interfaith relations and charity".

Nasser Khalili was born in 1945 in the city of Isfahan, Iran, the fourth of five children, to a Jewish family of art dealers and traders of artefacts.

The family moved to Tehran when Nasser Khalili was a few months old.

Nasser Khalili studied in Tehran and, at age 14, wrote a book profiling more than two hundred geniuses.

Nasser Khalili completed his national service in Iran as a medic in the Iranian Army, before leaving Iran in 1967 for the United States with US$750, the proceeds from his book.

Nasser Khalili studied computer science and earned a bachelor's degree in the subject at Queens College, City University of New York, graduating in 1974.

Nasser Khalili later received a PhD degree in Islamic art in 1988 from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, with a thesis on Islamic lacquerware.

Nasser Khalili started his business career trading in art before moving into property development and commodities.

Nasser Khalili began collecting art in New York City in the 1970s, keeping the best pieces for his own collection.

Nasser Khalili initially traded in Persian lacquerware, later writing his doctoral thesis on the subject.

Nasser Khalili took the opportunity to expand his collection, acquiring works that would be valued much more highly with the later growth of international interest in Islamic art.

People close to Nasser Khalili stated that he invested wisely and often discreetly, buying items that later appreciated to one hundred times the price he paid.

Nasser Khalili's dealership was based in Mayfair's Clifford Street in the 1980s.

Nasser Khalili sought out the rarest items and paid record prices at auction.

Suspicions in the art industry were that Nasser Khalili was assembling the collection on behalf of a rich investor.

Nasser Khalili wrote a catalogue of the Sultan's artworks that were on display in the Brunei Museum.

In 1992, Nasser Khalili offered to lend his Islamic art collection to the British government for a period of 15 years and on condition it would be publicly displayed in a "museum building in central London".

Nasser Khalili suggested that the museum would be known as the Nasser D Khalili Museum, with the running costs of the museum and insurance to be publicly funded.

Nasser Khalili has assembled eight art collections, collectively known as the Nasser Khalili Collections.

Nasser Khalili has made many substantial donations to a number of organisations, institutions, and charities.

One project of Nasser Khalili's Foundation is the Maimonidies Interfaith Initiative, originally founded in 1995 to promote "understanding, cooperation and peace between Jews, Christians and Muslims internationally through art, culture and education".

Nasser Khalili is the chair of Global Hope Europe, one of three not-for-profit organisations that together form the Global Hope Coalition.

Nasser Khalili is the author of The Timeline History of Islamic Art and Architecture, first published by Worth Press in 2005.

Nasser Khalili is the co-author, with Nahla Nassar, of A selection of Islamic Art at the Brunei Museum and co-author, with Basil William Robinson and Tim Stanley, of the two-volume Lacquer of the Islamic Lands.

Nasser Khalili has overseen the publication of dozens of volumes relating to his collections, including catalogues and scholarly essays.

Nasser Khalili has been awarded many honours, including being the only non-Christian to have received knighthoods from two Popes.

Nasser Khalili was knighted in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to inter-faith relations and charity.

In 2012, Nasser Khalili was honoured by UNESCO as a Goodwill Ambassador for his work in the pursuit of peace among nations via education and culture.

Nasser Khalili has spoken at UNESCO events about the role of culture in sustainable development.

In 1978, Nasser Khalili married Marion Easton, whom he had met when buying jewellery from an antique shop where she was working.