NEW YORK, NY.- Bonhams will offer Islamic Art from the Collection of Rafi Y. Mottahedeh as part of our Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art sale on September 17 in New York.

Rafi Y. Mottahedeh was a renowned New York-based collector and a generous benefactor to many institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Princeton University. He founded an eponymous company which supplied porcelain to several US Presidents. During the 1930s and 40s, he began collecting Islamic and Pre-Islamic art, assembling mostly ceramics, manuscripts and textiles. Items within his collection rarely make appearances at auction in the United States.

Highlights among the collection include an important Kashan lusterware dish (est. $30,000-50,000) that was included in the historic 1949 publication of Gurgan Faience by Medhi Bahrami. In addition, several items in this auction were included in Phyllis Ackerman’s “Exhibition of Persian Art” at the Iranian Institute in New York in 1940, and Richard Ettinghausen’s 1974 exhibition titled, “Islamic Art from Princeton Collections,” held at The Art Museum of Princeton University.

All the items from the Rafi Y. Mottahedeh Collection offered at Bonhams have been located within the US prior to 1978 and some of them even earlier. By offering the collection in New York, Bonhams will provide collectors and institutions based in the US an opportunity to acquire well-documented art objects from the Middle East.

Also included in the auction are two masterworks by the celebrated Indian artist V.S. Gaitonde, a strong group of Himalayan sculpture and paintings, and selections from The Barbara Janeff Collection of Indian Paintings.

Participants can view items and register for the auction online at http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21787/