Ali Aboutaam

Madison Avenue is set to hold their third annual Gallery Walk, on May 15, 2010.  Phoenix Ancient Art will be participating in this event along with over 50 other art galleries.  It is set to be quite a prestigious affair for all those serious about art.  Faculty members from the New York City public school will lead groups on free tours of galleries on Madison Avenue.  Partners and sponsors of the event include: HSBC Bank; the Fund for Public Schools; New York Magazine, hosted by Madison Avenue.
Phoenix Ancient Art Working Toward Fund Raising

As well as being a highly successful company, by taking part in the above event, Phoenix Ancient Art will be helping arts education in the city of New York’s public schools. The event is seeking to raise monies for the Fund for Public Schools.  Events at the fundraiser include:  scavenger hunt; meeting those who work in art such as artist Winfred Rembert (who is currently exhibiting ‘Memories of my Youth’), curator Chris Santa Maria and art owner Larry Matlick.  There will be special talks and viewings as well as opportunities to meet interesting and well-rounded artists, owners and curators discussing exhibitions in particular and their work in general.

The buzz was felt by all at the recent International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show at the Park Avenue Armory in October. Apter-Fredericks of London, which sells 18th-century English furniture, had a fantastic opening night. London book dealer Bernard Shapero sold a large “Ricci map” which is one of seven copes of the map fo the world that was made by Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci in 1602.

Certainly, Phoenix Ancient Art, with Ali Aboutaam and Hicham Aboutaam, was there, showing their exceptional antiques. At the opening, the Aboutaam gallery sold a Greek oinochoe-shaped head vase that dated from the 5th century B.C. It went for $300,000. They also sold a large fragment of a basalt turtle from Egypt or Mesopotamia from around 3000 B.C.

Another antiques dealer, James Ede, sold 13 pieces on the opening night and had three more on reserves. A great success for everyone!

Certainly, it’s not always easy to know how to go about purchasing an antique. There are a number of precautions that you can take to make sure that you get a legitimate antique and one from a reputable company.

Take a look at the U.S. State Departments website where you’ll see which countries have bilateral agreements on antiques or emergency rulings. The site also offers an image database where you can see pictures of restricted artifacts.

You can also check images against the Art Loss Register which is an international database of lost and stolen art. Certainly, the more that you know about the piece that you are buying, the more valuable it will be. Make sure to work with a reputable auction house and that you buy from auction houses that offer money-back guarantees. Ali Aboutaam and Hicham Aboutaam, for instance, offer this money-back guarantee at Phoenix Ancient Art, which makes a tremendous difference in the dependability of the purchase.

Today, the market is showing an exciting growing interest in antiques. As Hicham Aboutaam explains, “There are antiquities available for purchase that are considered among the finest five in the world. Compare that to an Impressionist painting or the Old Masters, where the top 20 or 30 are off the market – in public institutions – and it’s obvious why there’s so much interest in antiquities.”

There is a great deal of opportunity with antiques, and a chance that some of the world’s most amazing antiques could still become for sale. The Vatican, for instance, has a massive store of antiques in their possession. Ali Aboutaam, as another example, recently returned from a visit to a Delaware family that has antiques simply sitting in their warehouse.

This all makes for exciting opportunities in the ever-changing field of antiquities.

Here is an example of the beautiful antiquities from Egypt available from Phoenix Ancient Art. The scarab is an example of the most popular type of amulet worn in ancient Egypt. This scarab, dating from the 1600 BC to the 1200 BC has a carved exterior that is made to look like a scarab beetle. The scarab beetle was a symbol of rebirth in ancient Egypt and was also representative of Ra, the Egyptian sun god.

This type of scarab theme in amulets was first seen in the First Intermediary period and it persisted through the Late period. The Egyptians believed that a giant scarab beetle pushed the sun across the sky each day and this popularity led to its depiction in jewelry and other items. This is one of the many examples of ancient Egyptian antiques available from Ali Aboutaam and Hicham Aboutaam.

One of the largest antique shows in the world just concluded. The 55th Brussels Antiques and Fine Arts Fair ran in Brussels from January 22nd to January 31st. 130 antique dealers, including Hicham Aboutaam and Ali Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient Art, came out to display their outstanding antiques. 36,000 visitors from Belgium and abroad were expected to come to the Tour & Taxi site which includes 133,472 square feet of space.

Started in 1955, the Brussels Antiques and Fine Arts Fair was originally named the Belgium Antiques and Fine Arts Fair. It is said to be the oldest annual event of its type in the world and it welcomes antique dealers from throughout the world to come and display their wares. Antiques on display include Oceanic art, African art, Oriental art, silver, antique jewelery, ceramics, earthenware and porcelain, drawings, engravings, old masters, modern painting, sculpture, carpets, tapestry, antique and modern books, numismatic, contemporary painting and sculpture, and photography.

Find out more about why investing in antiquities could be a great idea for your portolio. Hicham Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient Art shares suggestions for purchasing antiquities.

For sale at Phoenix Ancient Art is a beautiful ceramic bottle from the Safavid dynasty which ruled in Iran from 1501 until 1736. The Safavids ruled over one of the greatest of the Persian Empires since the Islamic conquest of Persia in 644, thus this 11cm high bottle is a wonderful synthesis of two great cultures, Islam and Persia.

The bottle is simply, but elegantly adorned with a white floral decoration, which is painted on the light beige ceramic and then glazed in green celadon.

This bottle dates from about the 17th century, and is a beautiful addition to any antiquities collection.

Neolithic Idol

Becoming an owner of fine, genuine and beautiful antiquities has never been so easy. Until Phoenix Ancient Art established E-tiquities™, their innovative web site where collectors as well as novices can shop or bid for the finest examples of ancient art, prospective buyers had to find a reputable gallery in a large city, like New York or Geneva, to make their purchases. Not anymore. Thanks to an idea born in the minds of Ali and Hicham Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient Art, anyone with a computer can purchase or even bid on an amazing ancient object of enduring beauty and unquestioned worth. Your purchase will be shipped to you, anywhere in the world, for free. If you are not perfectly satisfied with your purchase, there is a money-back guarantee within 14 days of purchase.

Now available for purchase on E-tiquities ™ are a large assortment of art pieces, varying in price from $500 and rising to $25,000. Objects are from all different regions and date from as early as before 3500 B.C.E. and as late as the 14th century A.D.

In an amazing synthesis of the extraordinarily old with the most up-to-the-minute new, Hicham and Ali Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient Art launched their landmark web site, E-tiquities. Click your way over to E-tiquities and get a gander of the most beautiful objects which have been cherished and preserved for thousands of years until our day. You are more than welcome to just browse, since one of the goals of this unique web-site is to open up the world of ancient art to a broader audience, to educate them about art from the deep past, and to hopefully interest them to belong to this special club of people who, more than owning the precious objects, become guardians of them for the future.

Even computer geeks might want to participate in the chain of ownership through the millennia, acknowledging that not everything is measured in nanoseconds, or gets obsolete in 5 years time.