The Collectors: Anna Missirian
The Greek hotelier inherited an array of ornate 19th-century Persian rugs from her husband, many of which are on view at Imaret
Greek hotelier Anna Missirian became a collector before making a single purchase. As members of her late husband’s family passed away, she inherited a trove of over 300 dog collars, art, a rosewood piano, and an array of ornate 19th-century Persian rugs, including Heriz, Malayer, Tabriz, Kashan, and Kerman examples as well as an Ersari carpet from Central Asia. “Being an Armenian family, the first thing you furnish a house with are the rugs,” she says.
Many of these unique and exotic heirlooms now live on in public view at Imaret, the hotel she founded in 2004 in a restored 1817 complex in Kavala, Greece. “The rugs look like they’ve always been a part of Imaret; they’re very natural within our spaces,” says Missirian, who displays approximately 20 styles—roughly half of her collection’s mix of passed-down pieces and new acquisitions—throughout the recently renovated destination, which encompasses just eight suites and a private museum. “I don’t consider rugs to be furnishings. To us, it’s a way to put art on the floor.”
Craft culture: “I believe a very good rug fills up a room, fills up a home,” she says. “People think that the art is just to create the rugs. In my opinion, a significant craft is how to maintain the rugs.”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2026 Late Fall Issue in the section “The Collectors.” Subscribe to the magazine.