Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Rugs and Carpets

Sara Plumbly is Director and Head of the Islamic and Indian Art department at Christie’s King Street. She joined the company in 2006, and has worked on the department’s biannual sales of Islamic art since that time. She has been responsible for the successful King Street sales since that time, including collections such as the Library of the Late Djafar Ghazi and the Private Collection Donated to Benefit the University of Oxford. She has also overseen the sale of several record breaking pieces, including the important early Iznik bowl that sold for £1.4 million in April 2014.

Sara studied Arabic and Persian at Durham University and Arabic for another year at the American University in Cairo. Whilst in Egypt she also worked at the Gayer Anderson Museum, a 17th century house in the heart of Islamic Cairo. She subsequently completed her Master’s Degree in Islamic Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford, focussing for her thesis on the restoration and conservation of architectural monuments in Cairo, particularly those of the Fatimid period.

She has lived and travelled extensively across the Middle East and North Africa, including particularly long periods in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam is the Head of Sale in the Islamic and Indian Art department at Christie’s King Street. She joined the company in 2017, and works on the department’s biannual sales of Islamic and Indian art as well as being involved in important single-owner collections, notably the Maharajas and Mughal Magnificence sale which achieved the highest total for any auction of Indian art and jewelled objects. Behnaz obtained a Bachelor’s degree in History of Art and Archaeology from the School of Oriental and African Studies and University College London. She subsequently completed her Master’s degree in Museum Studies at UCL, writing a thesis on illustrated manuscripts and the architecture of the Haramain in Mecca and Medina. She joins us from the Victoria and Albert Museum where she was an Assistant Curator and Exhibition Researcher. Behnaz is fluent in Persian and has a working knowledge of Arabic.

Louise’s career at Christie’s began over 25 years ago in 1998. In 2002, she was appointed Junior Specialist in the Rugs and Carpets department where she went on to be made Head of Sale in 2012 and Director and Head of Department in 2014. Following Louise’s extensive years of experience and deep knowledge of the field, she has helped nurture the extraordinary sales and record prices which have greatly contributed to Christie’s dominance in this category. She has been involved with a number of high profile sales including the rare Safavid ‘Vase’ carpets formerly in the collection of Alice de Rothschild in 2016 (over £2.3 million), the Pommersfelden silk and metal-thread Safavid ‘Polonaise’ rugs in 2019 (over £7.5 million), the Imperial Ming ‘Dragon’ carpet which broke a world auction record for a Chinese carpet in Paris in 2019 (6.8 million euros) and the Royal Indian Mughal fragment that broke a further record in 2022 (over £5.4 million). Louise has nurtured strong relationships with established and emerging collectors within her field and during her time as Head of Department, Christie’s now hold eight of the top ten auction records in this field.