site.btaDutch Collector van Beylen Champions National Museum for Bulgarian Carpets

Dutch collector Jacob van Beylen told BTA's Radoslav Parvanov on Sunday he had spent the past eighteen months promoting the creation of a National Museum of Bulgarian Carpet Weaving.

Van Beylen spoke at the first Iglika Carpet Fest, organized by the Nevena Kokanova 2011 community centre in Iglika and supported by Gabrovo Municipality’s Culture Fund, which backs Gabrovo’s bid for European Capital of Culture.

His collection of more than 1,000 carpets from every region of Bulgaria could form the museum’s core, he noted, yet he does not see the future institution in Kotel, Chiprovtsi or even Sofia. “The collection and the building should belong to the State, but its activities should be managed privately,” he said, adding he would donate his carpets if the project went ahead.

The stone houses and meadows around Iglika inspired him to stage the largest open-air carpet exhibition to date. He had searched for venues from Veliko Tarnovo’s old streets to sites near Petropavlovski Monastery and Gorna Oryahovitsa airport before accepting Iglika’s invitation. Besides displaying carpets, he set up workshops, guided tours and a round-table discussion so visitors could learn about their own pieces. “I wanted to do something good for the carpets, but also for people and for Bulgaria,” he said, thanking organizer Vladislava Andreeva.

He sees a renewed respect among Bulgarians for costumes and other heritage items. “People are starting to look back and value the artefacts of the past. The link to heritage should be used to move forward,” Van Beylen said, warning against kitsch and insisting every display stay true to tradition.

Many carpet symbols have lost their meaning, he added, urging caution: “It is better to say we don’t know than to make things up.” His interest in Bulgarian culture began after buying a house near Kotel’s former carpet school. Encouraged by locals, he soon gathered dozens of pieces and studied academic publications. “At first, I did not see myself as a collector, but I became truly passionate about carpets,” he said.

Now retired from legal publishing with the Dutch and EU parliaments, Van Beylen spends most of his pension on carpets and owns neither car nor luxuries. “My collections includes more than 1,070 carpets. Today, 970 are on display in Iglika, others are in exhibitions or at home, and I am expecting new carpets from Istanbul,” he said.

He is working with an initiative committee and a foundation to prepare seriously for the national museum. Over the past five years he has focused on gathering carpets and their stories and on correcting foreign misattributions. “People abroad recognize these carpets are Bulgarian; national interest is now growing,” he said, noting that Iglika’s display tops the 800-piece exhibition of McCoy Jones’s Anatolian carpets in San Francisco in 1990.

Iglika Carpet Fest is part of Gabrovo’s 2032 European Capital of Culture campaign. Partners include the Regional Open-Air Ethnographic Museum Etar, Foundation Community in Support of the Dependent and the Public Donor Fund – Sliven. BTA is the festival’s media partner.