A Venice-Istanbul exhibition will open in this largest city of Istanbul on Wednesday evening.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini will inaugurate the "Exhibition on Venice and Istanbul During the Ottoman Period: Love By Any Other Name" at Istanbul's Sakip Sabanci Museum on the sidelines of Italian President Giorgio Napolitano's formal visit to Turkey.

The exhibition will encounter art lovers between November 19, 2009 and February 28, 2010, and is intended to acquaint visitors with the mutual influences and historical synergy between the two cities that extended from the 15th to the 20th century.

Along with selected works of art from the museums of Venice, the exhibition also includes works chosen from the collections of the Topkapi Palace Museum, Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, Pera Museum and Yapi Kredi Vedat Nedim Tor Museum.

Works from museums in Turkey representing the shared past and deep historical, social and commercial relationships as they were experienced during the period on the Istanbul end will accompany the works that come from Venice.

Thus, the exhibition will display the panorama of close diplomatic, military, commercial and artistic relations between the two cities, along with their deeply intertwined reciprocal influence.

Sakip Sabanci Museum's director Nazan Olcer, Musei Civici Veneziani's director Professor Giandomenico Romanelli; Ca'Foscari University's Professor Giampiero Bellingeri, and Museo Correr's Dr. Camillo Tonini are the curators of the exhibition.




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