studied art history and languages in Innsbruck, Lisbon, Vienna and Paris. After her PhD at the University of Vienna (2004) on Early Modern Indian textile production for export, she carried out a project at the SNS di Pisa on objects from the Islamic world in the collections of the Medici. In 2008 she became researcher at the Institute for Iranian Studies /ÖAW, where – in a project – she published a book entitled “Treasury-Kunstkammer-Museum” discussing the objects from the Islamic world in Vienna’s museums. Since 2010 she has been curator of textiles and carpets at the Museum für angewandte Kunst (MAK) in Vienna. Barbara Karl has published articles on art in intercultural networks during the Early Modern period, e.g. Indian export textiles, Indian textiles and mother-of-pearl items in European inventories, Habsburg collecting of Islamic art, Ottoman flags as booty items or merchants as mediators of Indian art.