The Museum for Islamic Art

The L. A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art is an art museum in Jerusalem, Israel, established in 1974. Located on the corner of HaPalmach Street in the Katamon neighborhood, near the Jerusalem Theatre, the museum houses Islamic pottery, textiles, jewelry, ceremonial objects, and other Islamic cultural artifacts, as well as a rare collection of clocks. The institution was founded by Vera Bryce Salomons in memory of her teacher, Leo Aryeh Mayer, a scholar of Islamic art and rector of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The museum operates as a financially independent institution, unsupported by public funding, and maintains an official website at http://www.islamicart.co.il/.

Vera Bryce Salomons, daughter of Sir David Lionel Salomons and niece of the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London, founded the museum to honor her friend and teacher Leo Aryeh Mayer, who died in 1959. Salomons specified that the museum would remain financially independent. The building was designed by Alexander Friedman, and construction began in 1965. Gabriel Moriah served as the first director. The museum opened in 1974 with nine galleries organized in chronological order, exploring the beliefs and art of Islamic civilization. In 1999, a collection of Islamic carpets was added. Nadim Sheiban was appointed director in 2014, and his first initiative was to convert the weapons hall at the entrance into a space for temporary exhibitions. The museum has also hosted significant contemporary programming, including in 2008 the first exhibition of local contemporary Arab art in an Israeli museum, curated by an Arab curator, featuring thirteen Arab artists. More recently, from 2023 to 2024, the museum hosted "Tastes of Heaven: Tales of the Arab Kitchen," an exhibition on the evolution of Arab cuisine from the 7th century CE to the Ottoman Empire, co-curated by Dr. Limor Yungman of the Hebrew University's Martin Buber Society of Fellows and Adi Namia Cohen.

The museum's collection encompasses a broad range of Islamic material culture spanning from Spain to India. In addition to Leo Aryeh Mayer's private collection, the museum holds antique chess pieces, dominoes, and playing cards; daggers, swords, and helmets; textiles; jewelry; glassware, pottery, and metalware produced in Islamic countries. The collection is presented across nine chronologically arranged galleries that trace the development of Islamic civilization. A significant addition came in 1999 with the acquisition of an Islamic carpet collection. The museum's holdings are distinguished by their geographic breadth, covering artistic production across the full expanse of the Islamic world from the Iberian Peninsula to the Indian subcontinent.

The museum's most celebrated holding is the David Salomons clock and watch collection, displayed in a dedicated gallery. This collection originally comprised 57 Breguet timepieces donated by Vera Bryce Salomons. Its centerpiece was the "Marie Antoinette" watch, created by the renowned French-Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet and reputedly made for Queen Marie Antoinette. This timepiece, often called the "Mona Lisa" of watches, was estimated to be worth US$30 million. On April 15, 1983, approximately 200 items from this collection were stolen in a major burglary, including the "Marie Antoinette" and a valuable "Sympathique" clock. The case remained unsolved for over two decades until August 2006, when a Tel Aviv antiques appraiser contacted the museum about stolen items being offered for sale. Through negotiation, the museum recovered the "Marie Antoinette" and the "Sympathique" clock for US$35,000. The investigation led to the identification of the thief, Naaman Diller, and his wife Nili Shamrat. Documents found in an Israeli warehouse led to safety deposit boxes in Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. In November 2008, French and Israeli police discovered 43 additional stolen timepieces in two bank safes in France. Ultimately, 96 of the 106 rare timepieces stolen in 1983 were recovered. On April 3, 2010, Nili Shamrat was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and a five-year suspended sentence for possession of stolen property.

The museum building was designed by architect Alexander Friedman, with construction beginning in 1965. It is situated on the corner of HaPalmach Street in Katamon, a neighborhood in Jerusalem, in close proximity to the Jerusalem Theatre. The original design provided for nine galleries arranged in chronological sequence. Under the directorship of Nadim Sheiban from 2014, the interior spatial organization was modified, with the former weapons hall at the entrance converted into a space for temporary exhibitions, reflecting an adaptive approach to the building's functional programming.

The L. A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art is located at the corner of HaPalmach Street in Katamon, Jerusalem, Israel. As a privately funded institution, it operates without public financial support, as stipulated by its founder. The museum maintains an active exhibition program, as evidenced by its 2023-2024 exhibition on Arab culinary history. Visitors can access information through the museum's official website at http://www.islamicart.co.il/. The institution should not be confused with the Islamic Museum of Jerusalem, a separate entity.