I'm not sorry I invested in a lot of antique pieces from Marawi: furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl, trunks, brass gongs, lamps, 100-year-old malongs, jewelry, weapons, and wall hangings. I started doing so 30 years ago, when everyone else was into postmodern art deco, Italianate, indigenous cane, and steampunk.

I fell in love with these pieces because their pattern-on-pattern art and rococo designs remind me of pieces from old Syria and old Morocco.