500 years old lost carpet is found and returned to Turkey

A 500-year-old Usak carpet, which had been lost for 30 years, has been found and returned to Turkey.

The carpet is a rare example of an Ottoman-era hand-woven carpet. It was owned by Adrian Stefan Ionescu, who bought it from an Italian collector Erminio Bottini after he died. Ionesco then discovered that the carpet matched the description of a missing carpet featured in the book "Vakıf Halılar" (Foundation Carpets) by Suzan Bayraktaroğlu. He offered to voluntarily return the carpet to Turkey, where it was woven.

The carpet is a fine example of a Usak hand-woven carpet made with thousands of handmade knots. The dark blue carpet features large naturalistic flower pattern medallions. Damaged sections of the carpet were restored before the carpet was delivered to the Ankara Museum of Foundation Works, which is dedicated to reclaiming and protecting Turkey's artistic legacy.

Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Turkey's Culture and Tourism Minister, said:

“We are proud to see this elegant carpet, once knotted thread by thread in Uşak, reunited with the land that inspired it, just like every heritage that carries the spirit of this soil."

When you buy carpets in North Wales, while they may not be able to last as long as 500 years like the Usak carpet, unless nobody ever treads on them, you’ll find that modern quality carpets will last for many years even in areas with high footfall. A premium quality carpet bought in Wales also costs considerably less to buy and install than a highly valuable 500-year-old hand-woven carpet.