The London-based collector Davinder Toor holds one of the most significant collections of Sikh works in the US and the UK
The collector Davinder Toor has added a £350,000 Sikh turban ornament to his collection of around 500 objects and works of art from the glory days of the Sikh Empire before its dispersal by the British. The turban ornament, or sarpech, is studied with diamonds and emeralds and belonged to Ranjit Singh’s famously ferocious army commander Hari Singh Nalwa. It sold for nearly double its estimate of £180,000 at Sotheby’s sale of Arts of the Islamic World last month.
Toor, who was born in London to Punjabi parents and is the founder of a pharmaceutical services business, started his collection after volunteering at a Victoria and Albert exhibition on Sikh arts in 1999. He will continue collecting and hopes to set up a museum of Sikh heritage, he says.
“My goal was to build a collection of Sikh art to construct a narrative that tells the story of a lost empire,” says Toor. As the biggest collection of its kind in the US or the UK, he believes, “it needs to be shared” in a museum after major loans to several exhibitions.
Artist Interview: Sudhir Patwardhan
August 20, 2025
Giant arcs of metal and concrete dominate the landscape. Skyscrapers with sea views have balcony seats to the excavation of Mumbai..
Read MoreLA2I.jpg)
August 19, 2025
After working for ten years as a textile designer, Bharti Prajapati returned to a longtime passion — painting. Now..
Read More
March 17, 2021
Tell us something about yourself and how did you start creating?
Dhanika Choksi: I’m an ambivert who enjoys being s..
