06-04-2025
A Milanese Design Gallery Owner on Her 45 Years in the Business
This article is part of our Design special report previewing Milan Design Week.
Few gallerists in the contemporary design sphere have the singular vision of Nina Yashar, 67. Ms. Yashar, the founder of Milan's Nilufar gallery, established in 1979, and Nilufar Depot, now marking its 10th anniversary, has long been a tastemaker in the world of collectible design.
In its first two decades, the gallery was known primarily for antique carpets — Ms. Yashar's father, who had emigrated from Iran with his wife and children in 1963, similarly dealt Persian rugs.
However, a pivotal trip to Stockholm in the 1990s, where she encountered the greats of Scandinavian furniture design, reoriented her curatorial approach. Shortly after, she mounted the 1998 exhibition 'Swedish Rugs and Scandinavian Furniture,' spotlighting works by Alvar Aalto, Hans Wegner and Arne Jacobsen.
Eventually, Ms. Yashar expanded her focus beyond historical pieces, introducing contemporary designers into her fold and placing them in conversation with their midcentury predecessors. In 2007, she organized 'Gio Ponti Translated by Martino Gamper,' in which she commissioned Mr. Gamper, the Italian-born British designer who was then just emerging, to deconstruct an entire suite of Gio Ponti-designed furniture from the Hotel Parco dei Principi in Sorrento, Italy, and reassemble it into contemporary, collagelike forms, including functional tables, benches and consoles with jigsawlike facades.
But it was the opening of Nilufar Depot — a former silverware factory transformed by the architect Massimiliano Locatelli to echo the tiered balconies of the opera house La Scala — that cemented her status as a major force in the design world. Each year during Milan Design Week, the Depot is a first stop for collectors and aficionados eager to discover the industry's next marquee name. Nina Yashar at Nilufar Depot in Milan. She established her first gallery in Milan in 1979, and is now a key tastemaker in the world of collectible design. Credit... Andrea Wyner for The New York Times
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