Western myths about the Islamic world mirrored at auction Apr 19, 2008
The cataloguer may have wished to avoid using the name Iran, even though the character depicted on the bowl is a close relative of those found on Khorasan pottery from Neyshabur. If so, it was a waste of time. (International Herald Tribune)
Test-train crash kills 23 in Germany Sep 23, 2006
Feb., 2004: 320 killed in Neyshabur, Iran when a runaway train derails at more than 145 kilometres an hour and then explodes, killing 320 people and injuring hundreds more. June, 2002: At least 240 killed in the Dodoma region of Tanzania when a passenger train carrying more than 1,200 people careens backward down a hill and smashes into a cargo train. (Toronto Star -- World)
The vision behind the Louvre's metamorphosis Sep 9, 2006
In the northeast, an excavation campaign is under way in Neyshabur, which was the largest city in the Islamic world in the 11th century A.D. with an estimated one million dwellers. Some areas were summarily dug up in the 1930s by a Metropolitan Museum team, which left on the eve of World War II. For the next few decades the site was ravaged by looters, sending thousands of ceramics to the Western markets and destroying in the process most of the fragile pieces. (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
Sales play havoc with 'Islamic Art' Apr 19, 2006
The 9th- and 10th-century pottery vessels, with cobalt blue patterns that invariably come out of Iran and are represented on numerous sites, continue to be given to "Mesopotamia," meaning Iraq, even when they display typical Iranian calligraphy as a bowl from Neyshabur that sold at Sotheby's for 18,000. This was followed by another "Mesopotamia" bowl with n equally typical Iranian pattern that was sold to an "institution" for 57,600. (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
