Kashmiri shawls, saris from Bengal and a Tibetan lama cloak once owned by the late dancer Rudolf Nureyev feature in a spectacular exhibition of silks that has opened in Paris, the legacy of an Indian-born connoisseur of Asian textiles. The collection at the Guimet Museum was donated by the late Krishna Riboud, born in 1926 in Calcutta, the grand-niece of the Indian Nobel literature prize-winner Rabindranath Tagore.
She studied philosophy in Boston, Massachusetts and married Frenchman Jean Riboud in 1947 in New York.
He became head of Schlumberger, a company he transformed into a global corporation, giving them the wealth that enabled them to indulge their passion for this collection.
The friend of writers, poets, painters and moviemakers, Krishna Riboud developed an interest in the techniques of Asian textiles, building up an outstanding collection of 4,000 items.
In 1979 she set up in Paris the Association for the Study and Documentation of Asian Textiles (AEDTA).
She died in 2000 and her collection became part of the Guimet Museum last year. The exhibition closes February 7.
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