AFP

For more than two months, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran has been attracting thousands of visitors who have been visiting prestigious works by contemporary Western artists, some of which are on display for the first time, and are a small part of a valuable collection dating back decades.

Shahin Rajabi says the museum in central Tehran "surprises me every time". "The current exhibition is no exception," the 35-year-old told AFP. The museum's collection of contemporary art is the most prominent in the world outside of Europe and the United States, some of which are valued at millions of dollars. As of late June, the museum is holding an exhibition of "conceptual and conceptual art" that includes 132 works by names such as the French Marcel Duchamp, the Americans Sol Lewitt and Donald Gad, and the duo Christo and Jean-Claude, according to its director, Abadredza Islami. Islami stressed that the turnout was "amazing" from visitors eager to see works of art, after the museum closed its doors for long periods during the past years due to the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. He believed that one of the reasons for this demand is that "38 masterpieces are being shown for the first time." "I especially liked the last room, where the artist worked with fluorescent light," said Rajabi, who visited the museum a few days ago, referring to the work "Untitled" by American Dan Flavin. - About '20,000 people' - The museum was opened in 1977 during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was toppled two years later by the Islamic Revolution led by Imam Ruhollah Khomeini. Its exterior design was inspired by the desert air towers that were known in parts of the country in past eras, and were aimed at circulating cool air in places with high temperatures. The greatest credit for the museum's legacy is attributed to the widow of the Shah, Farah Diba, who at the time commissioned experts to visit auctions in Western countries and acquire works that would enhance Iran's position in this field. According to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the holdings include works by the French Paul Gauguin, the Belgian Rene Magritte, the Spanish Pablo Picasso, the Americans Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, and the Italian Alberto Jacometti. The collection also includes many modern and contemporary Iranian works. A large part of the foreign works remained in the museum's stores in the aftermath of the Islamic revolution, especially since many of them were considered contrary to religious teachings. Running until mid-September, the exhibition includes a collage by Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, Green Curtains, and a sculpture by Canadian-American Jacqueline Winsor. The curator of the exhibition, Behrang Samadzkan, said that "about 20,000 people" have visited it so far, explaining that this number is twice the usual turnout for the events he holds for a similar period of time. He touched on the general title of the exhibition by saying that "when we talk about minimalist art, we are talking mainly about the environment and not about the work." In front of a work titled "Rock Salt and a Mirror" by American Robert Smithson, 28-year-old painter Solmaz Danchur said she "had a lot of fun" with the exhibition. The exhibition was not without controversy, as a tape apparently taken by a visitor showed two insects inside the frame of a rare picture of the late German duo Bernd and Elle Becher. The tape, which AFP could not independently verify, went viral on social media in the Islamic Republic. Subsequently, the museum issued an official apology, and announced the closure of its doors for two days for sterilization, reassuring that any damage was not caused to the aforementioned image of the duo who was known for his pictures of industrial facilities. In recent years, the museum has held a series of exhibitions in which it revealed valuable works of its holdings, for example, in 2015, an exhibition by Western artists that included a painting by Pollock entitled "Mural on Indian Red Land". This painting is considered one of the most valuable works of art, and experts estimated by "Christie's" auction house in 2010, that it may sell for about 250 million dollars