Persian rugs that are currently held by the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art and the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London.
Finished in 1539–40 during the rule of Safavid Shah
Tahmasp I (1524–76), the carpets are considered
some of the best of the classical Persian school of
carpet creation (it was probably created in Tabriz
although it is open to question). They were first placed
in the Mosque of Ardabil, but they had been damaged
in Iran and were sold to a British carpet broker in the
late nineteenth century who restored one of the
carpets using the other and then sold it to the Victoria
and Albert Museum. The second "secret" carpet was
sold to an American businessman and was exchanged
by wealthy buyers for years. It was eventually revealed
and showed at a 1931 exposition in London. American
industrialist J. Paul Getty saw it, and bought it several
years later and gave it to the Museum of Science,
History, and Art in the Exposition Park in Los Angeles.