Bassam Freiha Private Collection

His Excellency Bassam Said Freiha (b.1939) is a philanthropist and collector. His collection focuses on the Orientalist movement and includes works by Rudolf Ernst, Léon Comerre, Paul Leroy, Jan-Baptist Huysmans, Vincent Stiepevich, Georges Washington, Fabio Fabbi, Maguelonne Lefebvre-Glaize and Marie-Antoinette Izart, among others. In 1976, Freiha co-founded the Mathaf gallery in London with his business partner, the late financier Brian MacDermot. The gallery was the first in the city dedicated to art from the Orientalist movement. A passionate collector, Freiha’s first acquisitions of pieces from the Orientalist movement include Prayers in the Mosque by Henry Livy, Saturday of Light in Jerusalem by Eugene Girardet and The Carpet Seller by Charles Robertson.