Oliver Hoare employed by Christie’s in London, launching the very first Islamic Art department at a major auction house.

Oliver Hoare co-founds the Ahuan Gallery in London alongside David Sulzberger, a specialist Islamic art dealership and the first of its kind.

Ahuan work principally with Sheikh Nasser al-Sabah building his collection for the National Museum of Kuwait, it remains one of the most comprehensive and highly regarded private collections of Islamic and pre-Islamic art in the world.

Advised the Nuhad Es-Said collection in Beirut, one of the finest collections of metalwork ever assembled.

Organised three major exhibitions of Islamic Art in Saudi Arabia: ‘The Unity of Islamic Art‘, which inaugurated the King Faisal Foundation; ‘Islamic Science and Learning‘, which also travelled to Brunei as well as the National Gallery, Washington; and finally ‘Islamic Military Heritage’ in Riyadh.

Oliver Hoare Limited established as an independent trading entity.

Advised the Qatar National Museum project, which built a world-class collection of Islamic Art now housed in the Museum of Islamic art in Doha, and acted as coordinator with the architect IM Pei who designed the museum building.

Worked extensively with the Miho Museum in Japan and The David Collection in Copenhagen.

Negotiated the exchange between the Iranian Government and the Houghton Family Trust. Iran recovered the ‘Houghton Shahnameh’, the most important illustrated Persian manuscript, in exchange for Willem de Kooning’s painting ‘Woman III’ which was in Tehran’s Contemporary Art Museum.

Published Portraits of the Masters: Bronze Sculptures of the Tibetan Buddhist Lineages, the first comprehensive book on Tibetan portrait bronzes. The collection was compiled over 30 years and toured Spain under the auspices of ‘La Caixa’ between 2000 – 2002.

Published three volumes of Every Object Tells A Story catalogues showcasing high quality Islamic art and antiquities, as well as objects from a large spectrum of other cultures and times, each of which had fascinating stories recounted in highly acclaimed exhibition catalogues.

Damian Hoare takes over directorship of Oliver Hoare Limited from his father.

Organised an exhibition in London on Islamic musical instruments, revealing research on an Ottoman tanbur belonging to the Al-Thani collection which confirmed it as the oldest surviving example of its type.

Organised an exhibition at The Museum of Islamic art in Doha showcasing the only four textiles ever to have been created from the silk of spiders.