The Dubai Pearl Museum - Heidi Heutel Bohn

Bank assets are usually measured in bars of gold, or more likely securities stored as certificates.  But at its recent meeting, The Pearl Society viewed a most uncommon form of bank asset: natural pearls from the Persian Gulf!  Heidi Heutel Bohn, recently returned from that region, charmed and enlightened the large audience at a recent meeting with the account of her visit to the National Bank of  Dubai and its little known Pearl Museum.

 

 A map of the United Arab Emirates showed Dubai's position near the Oman peninsula, whereas Abu Dhabi, its rival, lies within the Gulf's curving littoral.  While Abu Dhabi possesses numerous natural offshore islands, Dubai is nearing completion of three artificial islands in shapes such as the palm.

 

But Bohn noted a slowdown in the frantic pace of construction in Dubai since her previous trip two years ago, when one third of the world's cranes were in use there.  She also was fascinated by the diversity of nationalities present, among both the workers and the visitors.

 

To  gain access  to the Pearl museum, our intrepid heroine introduced herself and her traveling companions as a delegation form The Pearl Society in Chicago - resulting in immediate entry and a guided tour.  The Museum was opened in 2003; its objective is to help preserve the colorful history of the pearl divers and merchants of Arabia, and plunge the viewer into an evocation of life before the discovery of oil.

Most evocative was the Dubai Pearl Museum's beautifully realized film, which Ms. Bohn brought to our May 31st meeting, recreating the dangerous and precarious existence of the erstwhile divers, culminating in a live interview with the last of the Dubai divers, a muscular fellow.  As in today's Dubai, divers were drawn in from other lands but according to a sheikh, "we treated them like brothers".

 

The Museum honors the late Ali Bin Abdullah Al Owais, a pearl trader and originator of the collection, and his son, Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais, the first chairman of the Bank of Dubai, a businessman and poet, reputed to have amassed one of the largest pearl collections in the world, the incredible sight captured on film and presented by Heidi at the meeting. Indeed, the innumerable lustrous and valuable pearls could be seen, nestled in red silk (not velvet as previously reported). This was Bohn's second visit to Dubai since she was not able to the rare pearls amassed by the Museum on her first trip.

 

 

Comments

[Brown]

I look forward to working with you in the future.

[alex]

I have heard about Dubai Pearl Museum
it is really very awesome. This article inspire me
to visit this Museum. keep posting such a nice article

....Alex

[Dubai Property]

This Dubai pearl Museum really looks to be worth of visiting and I hope that I would visit it asap if I had a chance. Thanks for the info.

[Dubai Pearl]

Thanks for your informative post. I have high regard for the valuable information you offer in your Articles. Thanks a lot.

[Yas Hotel]

Dubai, like other locations on the United Arab Emirates, the Yas Island, for example, is not about museums and culture, it's about luxury and extravagance.