The Fine Arts Museums is home to one of the most important collections of Turkmen carpet weavings in the United States. The foundation of this collection was solidified by a major gift of Central Asian carpets and textiles from Caroline and H. McCoy Jones in the early 1980s. The Joneses’ gift put the de Young on the map of the international rug-collecting world, and in the years following, two other major collections of Turkmen weavings were donated to the Museums, namely that of Wolfgang and Gisela Wiedersperg, who gifted their collection in 1997, and that of George and Marie Hecksher, who began gifting rare textiles to the Museums in 1999.

A small, focused exhibition, The Turkmen Storage Bag will showcase approximately nine storage bags representing five subgroups. The exhibition will take advantage of the intimate space in the T. B. Walker Textile Education Gallery to present a refined selection of the finest examples of these portable storage bags, in order to highlight the similarities and differences between the different groups’ weaving techniques and rendition of the gül motif. The exhibition serves as an introduction of the varying styles to novices, while appealing to connoisseurs with prime examples both from different subgroups and from Bay Area collectors.