Islamic art expert Jean Soustiel died on August 12th 1999 in Paris at 61. Well-known throughout the world, Jean Soustiel studied at the school of the Louvre and after becoming an expert at 25 worked for several auction groups in Paris first as an Art Deco specialist before turning his attention to Orientalist paintings in the early 1970's.
Jean Soustiel then took over the antique shop of his father boulevard Haussmann in Paris in 1983 and published an excellent book on Islamic ceramics (Office du Livre, Fribourg,1985) as well as many articles on Islamic art. He notably organised several exhibitions of Indian miniatures and was the expert of many famous auction sales.
All the more he donated several important pieces to many museums such as the Louvre, the Museum of Bursa in Turkey and that of Sèvres. Regarded as a gentleman, he was about to achieve this year a book on ceramics from Samarkand.