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Treasure Hunter

Ian Grant travels the world in search of rare finds for the home

Photo by Eric Moore

You might mistake Björling & Grant’s new home in St. Louis Park for the warehouse stash of a wandering collector. Huge rice paddy tillers sit silently next to massive Tibetan columns that once made their home in a monastery. Sweep oars from the backwaters of India rest against the wall, while decorative brass bells dance nearby. A “Hercules” pedal bike from a cycle store in southwest India, painted white and decked out with every conceivable accessory, stands at attention, as if its owner propped it there and went about his work. Beyond, an old Tibetan doorway leads to the sawdust-filled workshop where Ian Grant, the collector of these treasures, crafts his vision.

With his curly, graying hair, dust-covered jeans, and loosely tied Asics, the 39-year-old looks more like an adventure traveler than a curator of Asian antiques and other collectibles. For good reason: When Grant is on buying trips, he travels by foot, canoe, and, yes, “Hercules” pedal bike to the world’s farthest reaches—Thailand, Nepal, South Africa, Costa Rica, Belize, Cambodia, and southern India—in search of his next tribal necklace, bronze rain drum, or teak console. His buying trips are so intriguing that the Travel Channel tapped Grant to star in a new show, “The Deal Hunter with Ian Grant,” scheduled to air in January 2009.

Photo by Eric Moore

But there’s little chance television stardom will deter him from his passion: bringing fine antiques and custom-made furnishings to his stateside customers. “This is a chance for me to bring back elements of other people’s cultures, and if I’m doing my job correctly, my customers know everything about the piece they are purchasing,” says Grant, who also designs and makes items that account for half his inventory.

Björling & Grant—the name is a combination of his own and his wife, Lisa’s—is open to the public by appointment or chance, and offers gallery-style shows in the warehouse four or five times each year.

Global art collecting is not something Grant stumbled upon by chance. It’s simply a natural progression of his life-long desire to see and share the world with everyone around him. A history and art history major at Gustavus, Grant intended to earn a Ph.D. in history and become a professor. While he worked with Asian artifacts as an intern at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, when he traveled to Asia in his early 20s he discovered an abiding passion for Asian art. That fascination, along with his job as a manager of Navab Brothers Oriental Rug Company, persuaded him to dismiss all thoughts of an academic career. “I loved the search for knowledge and the thrill of discovering new things, and I am sure there was a part of me that liked the idea of being an educator,” Grant says. “But I also knew I wanted to travel, that I had a passion for history, and that I liked antiques.”

Four years later, Grant was on a plane to southeast India, embarking on the first of many buying trips to the region. His trips consist of four intensive days that take him from market bazaars to secluded tribal communities. The trips can be a “grind,” Grant says, but he’d be hard-pressed to find a more rewarding career. Or another one that requires a “Hercules” pedal bike.

Ann Kohler is an associate editor at Midwest Home

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