Yavuz Tatis
Encyclopedia
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, who has accumulated over the years one of the richest private collections in Turkey of historical artifacts dating from the Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
n, Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
, Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
and Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
periods.
Tatış was born in 1947 in İzmir
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
. The family company, the Tatış Group, is among the most prominent names in the city's business world, and his father, Bahattin Tatış, was also the founder of the Turkish College of İzmir, considered among the best high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
s in Turkey. Yavuz Tatış himself has graduated from this school founded by his father and he did his university studies in the West Virginia University
West Virginia University
West Virginia University is a public research university in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. Other campuses include: West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg; West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery; Potomac State College of West Virginia University in Keyser;...
in business management.
On his return to Turkey, he started his own company, and at the same time, he displayed a keen interest for the historical riches of the country, confirmed at first by his acting on his own to acquire a tourist guide's licence and then serving as guide for dignitaries visiting Turkey. Later, as of 1993, he started to accumulate diverse artifacts of antiquity. What started as a hobby has in time become a full-time occupation and he is better known in Turkey today in his quality of an expert private collector, rather than through his business porte-feuille.
In 2004, some pieces of his collection has been presented in the form of a book (in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
) "Anadolu Medeniyetlerinden Kültür Yansımaları" (Reflections of the Culture from Anatolian Civilizations). The international team of experts brought together by him for the book and the intentionally luxurious edition is meant to encourage other Turkish private collectors to take similar initiatives for their collection to be brought to the knowledge of the public. Since then, Tatış has completed an edition of his book in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and in a more extensive scope, which proves difficult to put the finishing touches since new gems arrive all the time. In the meantime, he is taking steps with a view to establishing a Yavuş Tatış Museum in İzmir, whose works have started, and is also deepening research in the specialist's field of Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
seals
Seal (device)
A seal can be a figure impressed in wax, clay, or some other medium, or embossed on paper, with the purpose of authenticating a document ; but the term can also mean the device for making such impressions, being essentially a mould with the mirror image of the design carved in sunken- relief or...
, having put together a unique collection in these. In 2006, he also published a second book in which he collected various observation drawn from business and everyday life, titled "Experiences" (Deneyimler).