Persian Pavilion and British Petroleum: Art and Oil in the Last Concession of Antoine Kitabgi Khan

Presenter: Hossein Nakhaei
204 Frick Fine Arts 

During the nineteenth century, Persia (now Iran) participated in several world fairs in Europe, but the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle marked a turning point. The commissioner of Persia in this exhibition was General Antoine Kitabgi Khan, an Armenian trader, broker, and former director general of customs in Iran. Being raised in Europe and fluent in Italian and French he was known mostly as the “European element of the Persian government” who was involved in many controversial concessions for European financiers in Iran during the late nineteenth century. Following several failures, his last and most significant concession known as D’Arsy’s oil concession, was achieved in 1901, shortly after the exhibition in Paris. By analyzing the process of organizing Persia’s pavilion and deciphering the meaning behind its exterior and interior design, this research uncovers how Kitabgi khan utilized the exhibition’s opportunity as a political device to pave his way toward obtaining a concession that dramatically changed the future of Iran in the 20th century and led to the formation of one of the largest oil companies in the world: British Petroleum.