*** I've posted this on the cleaning section but I'm thinking an estimation of what you guys think the pre-flood value, after flood and after cleaning and any repair that's needed may be more relevant. This may help the guy to decide on what route he wants to go down. ***

A customer has brought us a beautiful Tabriz rug which was in his house and had the roof collapse on it due to flooding. It was still soaking wet when it arrived and smelly, the water obviously not being particularly clean, it was quiet a large flood by the sounds of it.

The rug was bought 14 years ago in Hong Kong. It's 60 Raj (22 horizontal knots in one inch = 60 knots in 7cm, by around 20 vertical knots = 440 KPSI) and I think it has silk highlights and background to the central medallion and a few of its white panels, it could be cotton as is quite common but it's hard to tell because the material has now been left wet and has dried and it is now quite clumpy and stiff (which maybe suggests it is silk?).

The guy really likes the rug, you can tell he's in love with it and it holds a real sentimental value. Our dilemma is this:

He bought the rug back then for just under 3000, to replace it today would be a lot more (opinions on replacement value?) and I'm not sure how the insurance company will react. He also sounds as if he'd prefer if it was restored rather than replaced. I'm confident we can clean it up to look good again but I'm worried about the value of the rug being reduced, it's not going to be perfect and there does appear to be a slight 'wave' now that it's drying/dried out. My other major concern is we could get the rug looking good again but as it's been lying wet for over a month what if it's damaged long term structurally?

On the one hand the guy would love to get his pride and joy back, on the other it's a worry that the rug could be damaged physically and in value by what's happened.

It's a kind of grey area and the insurance company are probably going to want a black and white answer "can it be fixed or not" whereas the answer is probably going to be "yes, but it won't be the same rug as it was pre-flood".

Would appreciate you guys thoughts?