A Question of Provenance

A Question of Provenance
OrWhy Harry Truman called James Mark “Uncle Jimmy” Keshishian a “Son Of A Bitch”

November 16th to December 30^th 1949 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Shah of Iran visited the United States and visited President Harry S. Truman.

On that trip the Shah presented Truman with a magnificent Isfahan carpet of great size and beauty.

To get a sense of the size of this Isfahan Persian Carpet compare it to the picture below using the desk for scale. I figure this rug was no smaller then 12 by 18 and perhaps larger.

This rug was more than just a simple gift. Harry Truman loved that rug and took great joy in it. He used to talk about that rug: Truman is remembered for comments such as; “Old Mossadeghfound out that the Shah had given me the rug, and he was burned up.”

Or from the New York Sun:

‘About the only feature I remember from my earlier visit to the Truman Library was a huge Persian carpet that had been suspended from the balcony. We'd pass it more than once during our brief tour, and each time Mr. Truman would say, "Yeah, that's a rug the Shah of Iran gave me."’

In 1957 Harry Truman opened the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum as his presidential library and what was to become his final resting place. Truman loved that Library and the museum was a very important part of his life. He was usually the first person to open the door and often the last person to leave at night. He even answered the phone and shocked visitors when he would give them directions to “His Library”. Now his rug was the first thing you saw when you came in the front door. So needless to say Ole Harry loved that rug.

So in 1958 Harry Truman took it very personally when the IRS under Republican President Dwight Eisenhower audited his return and disputed the $150,000 tax deduction that Truman took on the Shah’s rug that he donated to the museum. The Internal Revenue Service knew this was a high profile and potentially explosive audit. The Republicans wanted blood and while Harry Truman was at a low point in his popularity he was still an ex-President. There was only one appraiser in the country they trusted with a job this explosive. They called Mark Keshishian of Mark Keshishian & Sons, Chevy Chase Maryland America’s senior Oriental Rug Appraiser expert.

One small problem the rug was in Independence Missouri and Mark Keshishian was scared of flying. Mark took the job but not the flight so he sent his son Jim  (James Mark “Uncle Jimmy” Keshishian) 

So off Jim flew to Independence Missouri where he carefully examined the rug. President Truman personally showed the rug to Jim and made it very clear that he as the former President and Leader of the Free World considered the rug to be worth $150,000.

The problem was as Jim told his Dad that night it was a very nice $15,000 rug and that was ten cents on the dollar of President Truman's Income Tax deduction. Mark Keshishian thought a moment and said, "Jim if I owned the rug or if you owned the rug it is a $15,000 but you aren't the Shah of Iran and I am not the President. You are forgetting PROVENANCE." With that Jim declared the rug worth $75,000. Because obviously a rug owned by a Shah and a President was worth more than that same rug would be worth with any ordinary owner.

So quite proud of his compromise Uncle Jimmy Keshishian explained to the President the next day that he was appraising the rug at $75,000. Truman was furious and looked Uncle Jimmy in the eye and called him "You Son of a Bitch". That is Truman for you.

I heard this story first hand from Uncle Jimmy Keshishian when I was helping him write the Chapter on Oriental Rug Valuation in the 3rd edition of Property Valuation Strategies in Divorce Proceedings. I could be a bit off on the exact figures since it has been a few years but I checked with Jim's son Mark Samson Keshishian a top Oriental Rug appraiser in his own right and a Senior Fellow of the Academy of Oriental Rugs and this is what we remembered.