Sameyeh's Story

International carpet dealer Chemouel Sameyeh set his career in Singapore with the ambitious aim of establishing the city as the regional center for fine Oriental carpets. His words are backed with finance; he has invested several millions of dollars. 

He has a collection 500 tastefully decorated antique Persian, Caucasian, Anatolian Central Asian rugs and carpets, village and master workshop rugs in wool and silk and European tapestries.

The Iranian expert from Hamburg, Germany, the largest carpet warehousing and distribution center in Europe, has brought in investment, collectible, rare and antique Oriental carpets, as well as antique Caucasian and French tapestries from Europe and elsewhere.

Sameyeh also offers his expertise to dealers and collectors and taps his international connections for rare old and antique carpets on his clients' behalf. Caucasian carpets are coming back into favor around the world, but 95 per cent of buyers are going to acquire older or antique Oriental carpets for collection and investment, says Sameyeh. Carpets over 100 years old, termed antique, are very scarce in the world and are traded between two specialist dealers or connoisseurs, or are sold at auctions.

Sameyeh is concerned about the fact that without the benefit of correct advice, buyers have purchased reproductions instead of original antique carpets. There are a lot of copies in Singapore he reveals with a note of solemnity. "I can spot copies made in India, Romania, Pakistan, Albania, Afghanistan, copies of original Iranian designs. This is wrong because they make you think you are buying old Iranian carpets." With carpet collecting gaining popularity quickly here, this practice should be checked.

The way for local collectors to become more discerning is for them to be exposed to more top quality carpets here. The interdependence of collectors and dealers in building a knowledge bank and acquiring better quality carpets & collections in Iran, America, Europe and elsewhere cannot be over emphasized. Sameyeh advocates that local auctioneers bring in "a more varied selection of carpets, which should be more valuable and more interesting, with more of the antique feel". 

Sameyeh has a business degree from an American University in Teheran and has 30 years' experience of organizing fine and rare Oriental exhibition sales in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Hanover, America, Africa, Mexico, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. He has staged special exhibitions for President Bongo of Gabon, the President of Zaire and the President of the Ivory Cast. Sameyeh is prepared for initial local response to the unfamiliar concept of acquiring old and antique carpets by plugging into the international carpet circuit. "If they understand my concept, it would be very easy to sell or buy. You have to bring them to the right level - it's very, very hard. Of course, I offer my expertise to both dealer and buyer." 

Sameyeh has observed that other Asians have also developed interest in Iranian carpets. When looking for new carpets, they come to Singapore. "Of course if they are looking for high class antique pieces as investment or as collector's items, they do not come to Singapore because nobody here has them. So I am the one who will try to bring more collector's items here to make them popular for Singapore first, then for the other Asian countries, New Zealand and Australia. I want to make Singapore the center of the Asian antique carpet market."