December 1996

December 1996 is the date when Necdet Adısez, a solitary hoarder living in Tophane, was crushed to death beneath the paper and old objects accumulated in his small house. His death becomes more than a grim city incident for Kemal: it links the hidden lives of Istanbul’s collectors to his own collecting and to a detail Füsun had once shared with him.

Death and Discovery

Necdet’s house was only a seven-minute walk from the Keskin family home, but his body was not discovered until four months after his death. By summer, the stench had become unbearable. The piles had pressed against the front door, forcing firefighters to enter through the windows. The delayed discovery gives the episode its stark shape: the possessions that filled the house concealed their owner even in death.

Newspapers described the incident in terms that were at once mocking and alarmist. Their coverage deepened Istanbul residents’ existing apprehension about collectors, turning Necdet’s fate into a public warning about hoarding while reinforcing the shame and suspicion attached to people who accumulated objects in private.

Füsun’s Earlier Mention

For Kemal, the report also reopened a personal connection. At the end of the engagement party at the Hilton, when séances were being discussed, Füsun had mentioned Necdet as a friend she assumed was dead. The man found beneath the hoard was that same Necdet. The coincidence joined a recent death to a conversation from the past, and made the newspaper account inseparable from Kemal’s memories of Füsun.

Collecting, Shame, and Memory

Necdet’s fate sharpens the distinction Kemal draws between an acknowledged collector and a solitary hoarder. He recognizes that collectors often hide both their work and the shame beneath it; his own early practice had also been concealed. He took small things from the Keskin home—matchboxes, cigarette butts, saltshakers, cups, hairpins, and barrettes—and eventually began replacing more noticeable belongings, such as ashtrays, cups, and slippers. Necdet’s death thus stands beside Kemal’s collecting as a disturbing instance of private accumulation, though Kemal later gives his objects a public home in a museum.

The episode also anticipates the museum’s wider argument about ordinary things. Kemal sees familiar objects such as saltshakers and china dogs circulating through homes and markets far beyond Istanbul, acquiring intimate histories through everyday use. Against that web of shared lives, Necdet’s concealed hoard and belated discovery expose the isolation that can accompany collecting when its objects remain hidden and its owner unseen.