Any takers for this 1.2 million RMB persian rug at Shanghai Expo’s Iran pavilion?
Bert van Dijk, Shanghai correspondent for Dutch paper Het Financieele Dagblad, tells us about what he saw at the Iran pavilion: “Iran wants to impress visitors with the supposedly high technologies that the country has developed. There is a model of a cloned goat to see, the first self-built satellite, a microscope, drugs against AIDS, a laser harp, and other complex machines. On the first floor, you’ll see how the Iranians are really going for it. They have built a carpet shop, where visitors can buy authentic Iranian rugs — no, not for a few bucks but for a small fortune — as even a small carpet can cost you 50,000 euros. I even saw a 3 x 4 metre rug going at a cost of 1.2 million yuan, or 120,000 euros. I’m not in the carpet business, but this seems to me to be a little on the high side. Apparently, Iran hopes to recover the cost of its pavilion like Belgium which is trying to sell diamonds at its pavilion.”
