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Photo by: Ardon Bar-Hama
SHLOMO MOUSSAIEFF (1925-2015)
Shlomo was an eminent antiquities and ancient coin collector with a focus on Biblical cultures.
He was passionate about collecting and often had the vision to realize the importance of an ob-
ject long before scholars did.
Shlomo was born in Jerusalem in 1925. Even as a child he collected objects he found in the
ancient tombs in Jerusalem, but he started collecting seriously in 1948, after the Israeli Indepen-
dence War, when he returned from military captivity in Jordan.
In 1963, Shlomo and his wife Alisa moved to London and became leading dealers of diamond
jewelry. Collecting antiquities and ancient coins, however, remained Shlomo’s real passion—a
passion which became one of the most important private collections of Biblical antiquities.
Many objects from the collection were published and exhibited in museums around the world,
including the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Shlomo
sponsored archaeological research and in recognition of his contributions, received a Doctorate
of Honor from Bar Ilan University in Israel.
Important parts of his collection have been donated to the Israel Antiquities Authority and will
be exhibited in the Shlomo and Alisa Moussaieff Gallery, in the new Campus of the Authority in
Jerusalem.
In 2015, Shlomo passed away in Israel. He will forever be remembered for the magnitude of his
contribution to the world of ancient Biblical scholarship.