The Portakal family has contributed to the artistic and cultural life of Turkey for three generations since the beginning of the 20^th century. Yervant Portakal, born in 1881, started antique dealing at the Grand Bazaar. He organized numerous auctions in houses and palaces. Among these are the Hejaz Governer Ahmet Hatip Pasha, Prince Burhaneddin, and Osman Hamdi Bey auctions. Yervant Portakal, who assisted in establishing the Istanbul Auctioneering Directorate, took honorary office there for a while.

Aret Portakal, who took on his father’s business in 1947, also held many auctions in houses and palaces. Among these are the AyÅŸe Sultan, Princess Emine, Mahmut Muhtar Pasha, Grand Vizier Kamil Pasha, Ahmet Dallı, and Consul Behçet Bey auctions.

Raffi Portakal, who had embraced the family business from 1964 onwards, opened his own gallery in 1973.

Establishing the Portakal Art and Culture House, Raffi Portakal started giving art seminars in 1984. Among the noteworthy exhibitions he has organized are the “Abdülmecit Efendi Paintings” (for Beymen), “Ottoman Calligraphy”, “The Orientalists”, and “Ottoman Masterpieces” exhibitions.

 

Between 10 December 2004 and 12 January 2005 he organized the “Great Masters of Western Painting” exhibition which was held in Turkey for the first time and included paintings by Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Dali, Lautrec, Dufy, and Van Dongen.

Between the years 1987 and 1991 he organized the İstanbul Antique and Art Fair auctions. Among the numerous auctions he held are also the collections of Satvet Lütfi Tozan, Samet Ağaoğlu, Salah Cimcoz, Ferit Edgü, Mesut Hakgüden, and the collections of the most prominent collectors of our country Şevket Rado and Emin Barın.

 

In addition to his activities as an antique dealer and an auctioneer, Raffi Portakal also works as an art consultant for private museums, corporations, and private collections.

 

Raffi Portakal has provided the composition of Sakıp Sabancı’s collection of paintings and calligraphy works. In 1998, the “Letters in Gold” exhibition comprising elect works from this collection was the guest of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, the Arthur M.Sackler Museum at Harvard University, and Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. Raffi Portakal is one of the founders of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum and presently continues his position as a member of the executive board.

 

Arden Yervant Portakal has been continuing the family business in the U.S.A for many years. Portakal Art and Culture House has been publishing the quarterly P Art and Culture Magazine in Turkish and English since the spring of 1996.