The Barakat gallery takes collectors around the ancient world...
alestine, the early years of the 20th century. A farmer near Hebron is tilling his fields. Suddenly he notices a piece of decorated pottery lumped up to the surface by lhe movement of his ploughshare. He stoops to pick it up, lhen notices more fmgments nearby. A close, look. accompanied by some enthusiastic digging, reveals a whole array of pots, some broken but others almost intact - rare survivals of a time when a local resident buried some of his or her most
precious possessions in a forgolten comer of his farmland.
It was incidents like this which proved to be the genesis of lhe Barakat family's interest in archaeology and antiquities. a phenomenon that stretches back over 100 years and spans no fewer than five generalions. The farmer was Fayad Barakat, and he realised that the artefacts he had released from the soil of the Holy Land. where they had lain for,
centuries, would prove attractive souvenirs to the increasing number of pilgrims and travellers to the region. Soon the Barakats opened a small shop in Jerusalem specialising in local anliquities and offering advice and guidance to specialists in ancient history and casual visitors alike...