The most abundant and complete collection of artifacts from Uzbekistan is kept at the National Museum – the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague.
A professional valuation of this collection was made in the monograph “Czech Travelers and Collectors in Central Asia. Collections of the National Museum – Naprstek Museum, Prague”, published in Prague in 2012 in English. A smaller collection of Uzbek objects is presented in the National Gallery Prague.
Occasional Uzbek artifacts are also kept in other cultural institutions of the Czech Republic. One of them is the Červená Lhota State Castle in Southern Bohemia. Its oriental collection contains suzani – a wedding bedspread representing the rich and delicate style of Nurata embroidery. The suzani is dated back to a period before 1900. This item was part of a collection that was gathered by the former owner of the castle, Prince Johann Schönburg-Hartenstein (1864 – 1937) and his wife Sophia (1878 – 1944). Sophia was fascinated by oriental art and, accompanying her husband, who was a diplomat, on his foreign business trips (to London, Constantinople and Bucharest), she acquired textile goods of oriental origin, which she used to create an oriental salon at Červená Lhota Castle.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "The Collection of the Czech Republic" (Volume XVI) in the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.