New York: Mr. M. Shafik Gabr,
chairman of ARTOC, and his wife celebrated the
publication of the Shafik Gabr Collection, a new
book documenting the Egyptian financier's
remarkable collection of Orientalist paintings.
Over 200 friends, admirers, and art experts
gathered at the Pratt Mansion on Park Avenue,
for an intimate candlelit cocktail party in the
building's elegant 19th century
paneled library and gallery. Guests flew in
from four continents. Among them from the
Middle East were HH Princess Lubna Al Saud,
Simone Monasenbian, Hoda Zahid, and Shaker
Khayat. Joining them was the Egyptian
Ambassador to the U.N. Maged Abdelaziz and U.N.
Ambassadors Nicholas Veliotes and Mike Smith.
With still more guest coming from as far away
as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates,
Switzerland, Great Britain, and Columbia. New
Yorkers in attendance included the chairman of
Sotheby's auction house, James Niven, fashion
designer Mary McFadden, and Faberge CEO
Georgette Mosbacher.
Orientalist is a school of European painting
depicting the Middle East. Mr. Gabr
started his collection of Orientalist art in
1993 and today it is one of the finest in the
world including works by such masters as
Jean-Léon Gérôme, Fredrick Arthur Bridgman, and
Gustav Bauernfeind. The collection hangs in the
Gabr Cairo residence and in the ARTOC
headquarters.
Mr. Gabr, in brief remarks to his guests said,
"I love these pictures of our country and our
part of the world. I see in them a kind of
communication between the East and the West,
which is sometimes missing today and is in some
ways a reflection of my own career. I am
grateful to my wife for the time she has spent
by my side in museums, galleries and with
experts studying this field". In an
introduction to the book Mr. Gabr expanded on
this theme writing "From my earliest
childhood, as the son of an Ambassador, I have
traveled widely, and delighted in learning about
other cultures. As a young man I visited all
over Egypt, the Middle East, Africa and the
West. But I believe that the art of travel, that
particular way of standing back and looking at
the world, starts in your own neighborhood."
Peter Trippi, an arts specialist, in a toast to
the project, said "The
Shaifk Gabr Catalogue will be of invaluable help
to scholars and institutions interested in
Orientalism."
The cocktail party kicked off a whirlwind trip
to New York for Mr. Gabr, which included
business meetings, conferences with art experts
and statements to U.S. media. In an interview
on FOX Business News he commented on "the
relative stability of the Egyptian economy where
the toxic financial instruments impacting the
West were not fully understood or employed."
However, he told the interviewer to also see
that "the world economy is linked," and asked
for better understanding of the Middle East,
surprising Fox TV host Brian
Sullivan
by making an spontaneous invitation on air to
"Please, come to Cairo."
The Shafik Gabr Collection is a boxed
limited edition book, published
privately as a gift for friends of Mr. and Mrs.
M. Shafik Gabr. An expanded edition will be
published by ACR and available to the public in
the Fall of 2009. Mr. and Mrs. Gabr next travel
to London to continue celebrating the
publication.