In August 2006, I received yet another Sotheby’s catalog on my desk. However, this one stood out. It was thick with the title "Shurbland Park, Suffolk, England." As I paged through the items, I thought it was odd that there was only one Aubusson carpet illustrated. It was only a few days later, while further studying the catalog, that I saw descriptions of 17 different lots, all cataloged as East Turkestan carpets, but with no images!

When I asked the auctioneers for images, they responded asking us to give them some time since the rugs lots were in the cellar. When I followed up a few days later, they said the rugs were so heavy from being wet that they could not carry them up in order to take pictures.