Inside IRAN's underground billion-dollar art gallery
It's one of the finest collections of modern art anywhere in the world, but you won't find it in New York or Paris.
Dozens of works by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock — together valued at roughly $3 billion — are locked in a basement in Tehran.
Only a handful of westerners have had an up-close look at the underground archives in Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art. ABC News was granted exclusive access inside the vault that holds a priceless collection Iranian authorities choose to keep locked away.
What was revealed was astonishing: a series of paintings by Picasso; a wall's worth of pop art by Roy Lichtenstein; Warhol portraits of Jackie Onassis, Mick Jagger and Marilyn Monroe; a Diego Rivera self portrait; and a painting many consider to be the best Jackson Pollock outside of North America.
The collection was supposed to be a gift to the Iranian people. It was assembled by the Shah of Iran and his wife using public funds during the oil boom of the 1970s. Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art was inaugurated in 1977, designed to be one of the world's landmark modern art institutions, with an international collection worthy of that ambition.
But just months later came the Islamic Revolution. The Shah was deposed, Ayatollah Khomeinei was became the country's leader, and in the Revolutionary, anti-American climate the museum's western art was banished to the basement.
Why aren't the pieces shown to the public? The reasons are a mix of ideology and practicality.
The collection is huge and the museum small. Museum director Dr. Habibollah Sadeghi, himself a painter appointed by conservative President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, says there is no space to properly put the works on display.
Others question whether the museum could properly protect the valuable pieces from theft or damage were they displayed openly.
Conservative Muslim ideology — a powerful governing force in Iran — has played a similarly forceful role in keeping the pieces underground. Aside from the anti-Western overtones of Revolutionary Iran many of the pieces are considered too racy for a conservative Muslim society. When some of the collection briefly went on display in 2005 Andre Derain's Golden Age, a 1905 painting of female nudes, was notably absent. Also hidden was the centerpiece of a Frances Bacon painting triptych. The center panel could be taken as homoerotic, showing two naked men asleep in bed.
There are plans to display the collection permanently once museum space is expanded, Sadeghi said. If those plans materialize — full-time public access to view the pieces — it would fulfill the dreams of art lovers worldwide. In two or three years we can improve the museum and have a permanent exhibition, said Sadeghi, adding that the museum is hoping to buy more Western works in the coming years to fill out the collection.
Iran's treasure trove of Western art
The collection held at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is perhaps the greatest outside the West, and yet rarely gets shown in Iran.
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First international sculpture symposium opens in Tehran
SHOTLIST :
13 March 2007
1. Pan of symposium
2. Sculpture with sun shining through it
3. Various of men looking at a sculpture calledMistery from Italy
4. People looking at sculpture called Peace in Eye from China
24 February 2007
5. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Seyed Mohsen Hashemi, Director of Visual Arts and Museums Affairs:
The art of sculpture dates back to the ancient Iran and has seen eras of blooming and prospering. After Islam came to Iran, the fear of turning the art of making sculptures to idolatry, like what was going on in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, this art become deserted. Later on, making sculptures of the human body was replaced by abstract designs of Islamic mosques in Safavieh and Saljuqia dynasties in Isfahan city. After the Islamic revolution this art, like the art of music, received little attention but fortunately, the situation for music and sculpture got better and now, we see this symposium in Iran.
6. Wide of Hashemi and sculptors speaking
7. Woman drilling a stone
9 March 2007
8. Set up shot of Bert Van Loo making a sculptor, called stone & glass
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Bert Van Loo, Dutch sculptor :
I think there are quite a few places where you could put in more sculpture in this city. It would certainly add another aspect to the well-being of people.
10. Wide of workshops at symposium
11. Various of female sculptor working
12. Wide of sculptors finishing their pieces in workshops
13. Tilt up of unfinished sculpture named Flowers Grown in the Wind from Iran
13 March 2007
14. Set up shot and zoom out of Naghmeh Pour Hosseini, a spectator looking at sculpture named Balance from Iran
15. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Naghmeh Pour Hosseini, Symposium visitor :
In Iran, the artists usually present their works in particular galleries such as the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Tehran and only specific people can visit them. The interesting point about this symposium to me was that for the first time the visual arts have been exposed to public view in a roofless place and people can freely visit and become more familiar with these arts.
16. Sculpture named The sun of Civilisation from Turkey, with sunset in the background
17. Wide of Tehran's Mayor, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, visiting symposium with other officials
18. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran's Mayor:
There are many suitable spots in Tehran where we could install the dimensional works of sculpture and create a beautiful and cheerful atmosphere.
14 March 2007
19. Tehran streets and buildings
20. Statue called Sardar-e-Jangal in city square
21. Wide of square and sculpture
22. Sculpture in a boulevard in Tehran
23. Set up shot of teacher Jamshid Soltanlou, looking at sculpture
24. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Jamshid Soltanlou, Teacher:
The existence of these sculptures gives the city more beauty. The authorities should put more sculptures in city squares and help to the regeneration of the city's appearance.
25. Close up of sculpture
LEAD IN:
The Iranian capital is looking to improve it's image by placing more public sculptures around the city.
In order to attract artists and their works, the city has just hosted the first international sculpture symposium.
Selected works from the show will be used to improve the city's public spaces.
STORYLINE :
The inaugural International Sculpture Symposium was held recently at Chitgar Park in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Organisers of the symposium said they hoped to get new works of art to out on display around the city and increase local awareness of sculpture as an art medium.
Certain sculptures, chosen from the symposium, are to be erected around the capital.
The symposium was for both male and female sculptors.
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Interest in Iranian art on rise after lifting of sanctions
There is a surge of interest in the art and culture of Iran, after international sanctions were lifted in January.
International collectors are keen to buy into the country's burgeoning art scene.
Al Jazeera's Neave Barker reports from London.
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Iran/ Masterpieces of the world's great artists /08 /02 /2009
Masterpieces of the world's great artists in the Tehran museum of modern contemporary arts in Iran
Sale of Iranian modern arts on Seyhoon International web site
The art gallery Seyhoon founded by late Masoumeh Seyhoon present a web site for sale of Iranian modern arts to International buyers .
Iran Inside Out: Explorations at the Chelsea Art Museum
From June to September 2009, the Chelsea Art Museum housed an exhibition entitled Iran Inside Out. It featured the work of contemporary Iranian artists living both inside the country and throughout the diaspora. Offering a fresh perspective on international relations, the artists' work is critical of both the Ahmadinejad regime and the United States government. As Till Fellrath, managing director of the museum, says of current Iranian art culture, It is a very youthful resurgence, a real outburst of creativity and you can feel that there is a change in the air. This short film, which Cultures of Resistance produced for the museum, takes you on a guided tour of the diverse artwork and challenges the viewer to reject stereotypes of Iranians that are prevalent in the Western media.
Empress Farah and Iran’s Museum of Contemporary Arts
Did you know that Tehran boasts an impressive collection of Western modern art? Back in the 1970s, Farah Pahlavi decided Iranians needed to know more about contemporary art. So she hired a curator to bring in work by Picasso, Kandinsky, and Jackson Pollock. Unfortunately, the collection hasn’t been seen by many people, and has mainly been stored underground. “The collection is in good condition, and that’s important,” says the American curator of the museum. “Things change, and it seems like things are changing at the moment. I would go back to Iran if the circumstances were right.”
ART BRIEF 2 : IRANIAN CONTEMPORARY NORTH AMERICA
Film by Eric Minh Swenson.
ADVOCARTSY presents the second installation of a multi-artist show entitled ART BRIEF II: IRANIAN CONTEMPORARY NORTH AMERICA. This exhibition is co-curated by ADVOCARTYS founder and principal, Roshi Rahnama and Dr. Talinn Grigor, author of Contemporary Art of Iran: from the Street to the Studio and Professor of Art History at the University of California, ART BRIEF II: IRANIAN CONTEMPORARY NORTH AMERICA seeks to explore the diverse ways in which artists of Iranian background and based in North America have addressed the separation from their homeland. The works exhibited speak to the various artistic reactions and reflections to the realities of identity formation in diaspora, the pain and joy of exile, the call of nostalgia,
and the fragmentation of the self.
The ART BRIEF series provide a concentrated opportunity to introduce local artists of Iranian heritage to the Iranian community of the region – the largest such community outside Iran itself – and equally to the art community of Los Angeles, and beyond. It is designed to build community and to build bridges between communities, but also to demonstrate the breadth of expression and meaning characterizing the art of Iranian-American artists.
For more info on Eric Minh Swenson visit his website at thuvanarts.com. His art films can be seen at thuvanarts.com/take1
Eric Minh Swenson also covers the international art scene and his writings and photo essays can be seen at Huffington Post Arts :
IRANMALL - construction site in Tehran | تایم لپس ایران مال
Iran Mall is one of the biggest shopping malls in the world. It is under construction in northwest Tehran by Chitgar Lake.Its first of the two phases launched in 2018 and spreads over an area of 1.4 million square meters. The first phase integrates 700 shops and a hypermarket of 20 000 square meters. A fashion avenue, a diamond atrium and a Crystal atrium. 3 food courts with more than 200 restaurants. A book garden as large as 3 300 square meters with 67 000 volumes of books and several book stores. A cinema complex with 12 IMAX cinemas as well as a state-of-the-art 2000-seat theater. A family entertainment center with a roofed amusement park. A museum. Art galleries, a permanent car showroom, an Iranian Bazar. 3 hotels, including a 5 star luxury hotel with 450 rooms, a conference hall with 3000 seats, a convention centre, several galleries, meeting and banquet facilities.
The roof of the mall serves as a sports complex with long routes for hiking, cycling and public activities. It includes 15 sport fields, tennis courts, a 12 000 square meter ice rink, and swimming pools.
The remaining 550,000 square meters are to be inaugurated as part of the second phase. When the project becomes fully operational, the total targeted area will be 1.95 million square meters.
#IranMall #Tehran #Timelapse
Iran: 'End of Terrorism' exhibition opens in Tehran
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An exhibition showcasing works from the The End of Terrorism international cartoon, poster and caricature contest opened in Tehran's Art Bureau gallery on Monday.
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Iran Qasr prison converted to Art Museum, Tehran city تبديل زندان قصر به موزه هنر شهر تهران ايران
March 30, 2017 (Persian calendar 1396/1/10)
Tehran province (استان تهران)
Tehran city (شهر تهران)
Qasr prison (زندان قصر) Geo coordinate
35.7236°N, 51.4483°E
The Museum of the Qasr Prison موزه زندان قصر is a historical complex in Tehran, Iran.
Formerly referred to as the Qasr Prison زندان قصر or Castle Prison, it was one of the oldest political prisons in Iran, which is now a museum complex surrounded by a public park.
The prison was built in 1790, under the reign of Fat′h Ali Shah فتحعلي شاه of the Qajar Dynasty دودمان قاجار. It was the first prison in Iran in which the prisoners had their legal rights.
Following the 1979 Revolution, most of the civil and military officials of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi محمدرضا پهلوي were detained and executed at the prison, some of whom were Nader Jahanbani نادر جهانباني and Amir Hossein Rabi'i اميرحسين ربي.
In 2008, the compound was planned to become a museum. Today, the former prison buildings and offices are turned into museum buildings surrounded by a public park which carries the same name.
Inside IRAN's underground Billion-Dollar Art Gallary
It's one of the finest collections of modern art anywhere in the world, but you won't find it in New York or Paris.
Dozens of works by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock — together valued at roughly $3 billion — are locked in a basement in Tehran.
Only a handful of westerners have had an up-close look at the underground archives in Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art. ABC News was granted exclusive access inside the vault that holds a priceless collection Iranian authorities choose to keep locked away.
What was revealed was astonishing: a series of paintings by Picasso; a wall's worth of pop art by Roy Lichtenstein; Warhol portraits of Jackie Onassis, Mick Jagger and Marilyn Monroe; a Diego Rivera self portrait; and a painting many consider to be the best Jackson Pollock outside of North America.
The collection was supposed to be a gift to the Iranian people. It was assembled by the Shah of Iran and his wife using public funds during the oil boom of the 1970s. Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art was inaugurated in 1977, designed to be one of the world's landmark modern art institutions, with an international collection worthy of that ambition.
But just months later came the Islamic Revolution. The Shah was deposed, Ayatollah Khomeinei was became the country's leader, and in the Revolutionary, anti-American climate the museum's western art was banished to the basement.
Why aren't the pieces shown to the public? The reasons are a mix of ideology and practicality.
The collection is huge and the museum small. Museum director Dr. Habibollah Sadeghi, himself a painter appointed by conservative President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, says there is no space to properly put the works on display.
Others question whether the museum could properly protect the valuable pieces from theft or damage were they displayed openly.
Conservative Muslim ideology — a powerful governing force in Iran — has played a similarly forceful role in keeping the pieces underground. Aside from the anti-Western overtones of Revolutionary Iran many of the pieces are considered too racy for a conservative Muslim society. When some of the collection briefly went on display in 2005 Andre Derain's Golden Age, a 1905 painting of female nudes, was notably absent. Also hidden was the centerpiece of a Frances Bacon painting triptych. The center panel could be taken as homoerotic, showing two naked men asleep in bed.
There are plans to display the collection permanently once museum space is expanded, Sadeghi said. If those plans materialize — full-time public access to view the pieces — it would fulfill the dreams of art lovers worldwide. In two or three years we can improve the museum and have a permanent exhibition, said Sadeghi, adding that the museum is hoping to buy more Western works in the coming years to fill out the collection.
Tehran’s Top - Tehran Museums by Givtravel
Tehran The capital of Iran that is Much like all the capitals of the world and is not a very old city in Iran but is full of museums to help you better understand the Iranian culture. National history is identity of each country.
Art Galleries & Museums tour of Tehran :
Tehran Museums :
Tehran :
Please join Giv travel to show you must-visit museums in Tehran.
Iraqi delegates at international show in Tehran react to events at home
Iraqi artists and officials from their country's Ministry of Tourism and Antiques are guests at a major international show taking place in Iran's capital, Tehran.
The International Handicrafts Exhibition showcases art, local attire, novelties, musical instruments, hand-woven carpets and mats, and decorative cutlery from a number of countries, including China, India, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
Iraqi delegates at the exhibition are concerned about the violence in the northern city of Mosul, much of which has been seized by militants aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
A stunning assault saw insurgents raid government buildings, push out security forces and capture military vehicles as residents fled for their lives.
Adel Jabar Dewan, an official from Iraq's Ministry of Tourism and Antiques, says his country is in a state of war, and called ISIL a danger to the entire world, not only Iraq.
His colleague Hakim al-Shahri says Iraq is facing an offensive from the terrorist organisation ISIL.
The International Handicrafts Exhibition ends on 15 June.
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Oct 14 Tehran Iran The Students of Tehran Art University in protest of arrests and heavy sentence
Iran: Hundreds of artists mock Trump at Tehran cartoon contest
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RESTRICTIONS: NO Access Israel Media/Persian Language TV Stations Outside Iran/Strictly No Access BBC Persian/VOA Persian/Manoto-1 TV/Iran International
The second Trumpism International Cartoon and Caricature Contest opened at Tehran's Holy Defense Museum on Saturday, with artworks mocking US President Donald Trump sent by artists from all over the world on display.
Visitors could be seen taking photos of the caricatures featuring the US president, which were selected among nearly 1,800 works submitted by over 600 artists, all competing for a €6,000 ($6,672) prize.
Director general of the Holy Defense Museum, Mohammad Reza Jafari-Jelveh, stressed that the purpose of the exhibit was to show the real face of Trump and the US administration. They talk about human rights but behind this mask there is violence, warmongering, discrimination, slaughtering innocent people and kids and also supporting international terrorism.
Trump's relations with Israel, as well as his alleged warmongering, were among the biggest topics of the contest.
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Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, exhibition of calligraphy painting by Jalil Rasouli, August 2009
The exhibition of calligraphy paintings by the iranian master Jalil Rasouli was part of the exhibition The 5th Annual International Typography Poster as Asma-ul Husna during Ramadan 2009.
British Museum: Forgotten Empire the world of Ancient Persia
London's British Museum recently exhibited Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia to much critical acclaim. Some 460 impressive works of ancient Iranian art were culled from four international collections: the National Museum in Tehran, Iran's Persepolis Museum, Paris' Musée du Louvre and the British Museum. The exhibition's easily attainable catalogue vividly describes the artistic accomplishments of the Persian Empire's Achaemenid rulers during more than two centuries of the dynasty's reign (550-330 B.C.).
iran in & out @ chelsea art museum