Oliver Hoare

Oliver Reginald Hoare (18 July 1945 – 23 August 2018) was an English art dealer, described as arguably the most influential dealer in the Islamic art world.

Early life and family Hoare was born on 18 July 1945 to Reginald Hoare, a Norfolk landowner, soldier, and official in the British War Office. He was educated at Eton College and then, after travels in Persia, at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Career In 1967, Hoare joined Christie's auction house in London where he was initially charged with overseeing Russian art. After spotting some carpets left lying in a corridor and recognising them as Persian, Hoare used them as the basis of a successful auction, which led to the launch of the Islamic Art Department, the first of its kind in a major auction house. At some time around the turn of the 20th century, the Shahnama mysteriously disappeared from Istanbul and in 1903 resurfaced in the possession of Baron Edmond de Rothschild. In 1959, Arthur Houghton Jr. acquired it, and in 1964 he contacted Hoare to sell the manuscript and Hoare negotiated its repatriation to Iran.

Another exhibition took place in 2017, this time at Sir John Lavery's old studio in Cromwell Place where his choice of objects ranged from unicorn horns to Bactrian treasures. It gave him a chance to tell stories and gave visitors another opportunity to experience Hoare, a private dealer with a very public persona, and an unquenchable thirst for new adventures.

Personal life In 1976, Hoare married Diane de Waldner de Freundstein, who came from a wealthy French oil family. Diane's mother Baroness Louise de Waldner (née Esmond, a wealthy heiress, granddaughter of Émile Deutsch de la Meurthe and great-granddaughter of David Sassoon), was a close friend of the British Queen Mother. Hoare and his wife had three children: Tristan, Damian and Olivia. One night, he was found by a policeman hiding behind a potted tree smoking a cigar after the fire alarm sounded at Kensington Palace, where Diana had her apartment. On another occasion, he was said to have been seen entering the boot of Diana's car.