Hong Kong’s Palace Museum will open its first major Islamic art exhibition on Wednesday, featuring 90 works from the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, including carpets, ceramics, and manuscripts dating from the 10th to the 19th centuries. The show, titled “Wonders of Imperial Carpets: Masterpieces from the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha,” marks the Qatari institution’s debut in the city and includes treasures such as the 17th-century “Kevorkian Hyderabad carpet.”
The exhibition underscores Hong Kong’s push to strengthen cultural and economic ties with the Middle East amid rising geopolitical tensions with China and the US. Palace Museum director Louis Ng Chi-wa highlighted the show’s connection to the Belt and Road Initiative, while MIA director Shaika Nasser Al-Nassr emphasized art’s role in transcending borders and fostering dialogue.