03/02/2008 - Art Stars in Iran
Contemporaneous with the time of Iran's rising oil revenues during the reign of the Shah, and the construction of that nation's Museum of Contemporary Art, one of the largest collections of Modern art was being assembled. The collection includes seminal work by Picasso, Pollock, Warhol, Lichtenstein and others, and is currently valued at over $3 billion. As a result of the Islamic Revolution and the ascension of the Ayatollah Khomeinei, as well as the collection's sheer size, it is kept not on the walls where it can be appreciated, but in the Museum's climate-controlled basement.
There are plans to finally place the display on view to the public once the space is expanded