Nasser Khalili

Early life and education Khalili was born in 1945 in the city of Isfahan, Iran, the fourth of five children, to a Jewish family of art dealers and traders of artefacts. The family moved to Tehran when Khalili was a few months old. By the age of eight, he was accompanying his father on buying trips, acquiring Persian lacquers and other Islamic artworks. He studied in Tehran and, at age 14, wrote a book profiling more than two hundred geniuses. After the book's publication, Khalili featured on television discussing his book and also wrote columns in newspapers.

Khalili completed his national service in Iran as a medic in the Iranian Army, before leaving Iran in 1967 for the United States with US$750,

Business and collecting career Khalili started his business career trading in art before moving into property development and commodities. During the same period, Khalili was an art advisor to Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei. He wrote a catalogue of the Sultan's artworks that were on display in the Brunei Museum. Forbes listed him as a billionaire from 2005 onwards, estimating his wealth at $1.3 billion in 2007 and 2008, until dropping him from the list in 2014.

In 2008, The Art Newspaper wrote that "a £1 billion valuation is believed more likely" than previously claimed higher amounts.

Image gallery

Property development

18–19 Kensington Palace Gardens In 1995, Khalili bought 18 and 19 Kensington Palace Gardens for £40 million. Number 19 had been the Egyptian embassy and 18 was formerly part of the Russian embassy. In 2007 planning permission was granted for an 11-storey office building called The Wave. Since 2010 the project had been a partnership between Khalili's property company Favermead and AXA Real Estate Investment Managers. The new building was later leased by Amazon in 2013. In 2014 the building became one of the 13 winners in the Urban Land Institute's Global Awards for Excellence, citing the blending of modern and historic architectural elements.

Philanthropy

Khalili has made many substantial donations to a number of organisations, institutions, and charities. His philanthropic activities are presently delivered through the Khalili Foundation. Donations in the field of education include a 2004 endowment of £2.25 million to the University of Oxford. The funds were used for the establishment of the Khalili Research Centre for the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East, which was opened by the Chancellor of Oxford University, Lord Patten, in July 2005. Khalili has since continued to support the centre.

In 1989, Khalili donated £600,000 to establish the Khalili Chair of Islamic Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He also gave a further £200,000 in 2003 for the refurbishment of the lecture theatre at the school.

In 1992, he endowed a Research Fellowship in Islamic Art at Oxford University.

In the early 1990s, when an advisor to the Sultan of Brunei, he persuaded the Sultan to provide £10 million to build the Brunei Gallery at the School of Oriental and African Studies. originally founded in 1995 to promote "understanding, cooperation and peace between Jews, Christians and Muslims internationally through art, culture and education".

In the 1990s, Khalili commissioned a series of five paintings by the artist Ben Johnson called the House of Peace to promote peace and harmony between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The foundation also donated 20,000 copies of The Timeline History of Islamic Art and Architecture (Visions of Splendour), written by Khalili, to schools in the United Kingdom and Islamic countries.

Faith in the Commonwealth is a global citizenship education project started jointly by the Commonwealth and the Khalili Foundation. It gives Training of Trainers workshops to people from the ages of 15 to 29 from different faith backgrounds, including those of no faith, supporting them in developing social action projects within their communities. These projects address topics such as hate speech, girls' education, and indigenous people's rights. Irina Bokova, former Director of UNESCO, is the coalition's honorary president.