Tehran Art Museum Reports Missing 30 Paintings

The Imam Ali Museum of Religious Art in Tehran, Iran, has lost 30 paintings from its collection after they were removed from the premises earlier this summer under the pretext of an off-site exhibition that apparently never took place. The news was revealed during the weekly Tehran City Council meeting on Sunday, September 15, where City Councilor Nasser Amani said the whereabouts of the paintings remain unknown despite multiple follow-ups by the municipality. the museum authorities.

Hyperallergic contacted the Tehran City Council and the Imam Ali Museum of Religious Arts for comment.

At the meeting, Amani explained that the paintings had been handed over to an unknown person outside the municipality in July, and that there were no official documents regarding the loan. The council member claimed that only one of the missing paintings was valued at 300 billion rials (about $500,000).

Since Amani’s public speech on Sunday, some reports have surfaced claiming that Majid Bagheri, deputy for planning and affairs at Tehran City Council, announced that the paintings had been returned to the museum. However, the museum’s public relations director denied the allegations, saying Tejarat News that the works were still missing.

“Besides the financial value of the paintings, their spiritual value is very important,” the spokesman continued, while specifying that no works by popular 20th-century painter Hossein Qollar-Aghasi have been reported missing.