Farbod Dowlatshahi is an Iranian-born collector has built personal holdings of almost 2,000 works by Middle Eastern artists, concentrating on Iranian ones. He collects Iranian art as a way of supporting his country and also to express his attachment to it, he says: "I think art has opened certain windows to the outside. The biggest impact of artists on the outside world is that people are talking about a good side of Iran. Through the media they only see people of the political regime. So the artists are capable of bringing to light another side of the story." Dowlatshahi is also an active philanthropist; among other things, he is a member of the advisory board of the Khalili Family Trust, which owns the largest collection of Islamic art in the world.
