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Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Iranian authorities have offered daily Hürriyet journalists a sneak peak of former queen Farah Pahlavi’s collection of modern art, which included Picassos, Pollocks and Warhols. Report: Çınar Oskay - Photos: Sebati Karakurt
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Pablo Picasso’s 1927 work “The Painter and His Model” is in the same corridor with a portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini in the basement of Tehran’s Contemporary Art Museum.
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Such masterpieces were bought in the last years of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s reign by his wife with Iran’s petro-dollars. From 1977 to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, they displayed at the museum, which was designed by famous architect Kamran Diba, a cousin of Farah Pahlavi.
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
After the revolution, the Shah and his family fled Iran, leaving behind all the Western masterpieces. Today, only special guests are allowed to see the pieces, located in the museum’s basement under tight security.
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
“Brattata,” a 1962 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein, is among the masterpieces shown to Hürriyet journalists by the museum’s “treasury” manager.
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Jackson Pollock’s 1950 work “Mural On Indian Red Ground” is another renowned painting here, believed to worth $250 million.
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Unlike most Sunni cultures, the Shiite Iran’s religious history has been broadly at peace with the depiction of human figures. As a result, Iran has many old paintings that were locally produced. The problem, though, is that many of them remain anonymous, such as the creator of a painting of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad.
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Farah Diba, 77, now lives between the U.S. and France. His husband, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, died in Egypt in 1980.
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
The museum collection is now worth somewhere between $2-5 billion.
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
The museum’s employees protected most pieces during the revolution’s turmoil. Only a portrait of Farah Diba, painted by Andy Warhol, was destroyed with a knife.
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
“You know, it’s not useful to think about the past because I always remind myself what Einstein said: With all the energy of the world, you cannot go back one second in time,” Farah Diba said in an interview with Interview magazine.
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
A nude painting by Willem De Kooning, on the other hand, was sold by post-revolution Iranian authorities despite Farah Diba’s protest.
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
Picasso vs. Khomeini: Inside Iran’s hidden art collection
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