Newsha Tavakolian recently visited the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, which was inaugurated in 1977, two years before the Islamic Revolution.
The Museum has one of the most important collection of Western contemporary art (outside Europe and North America), and was built under the patronage of Farah Pahlavi, former wife of the Shah. It includes works by Alberto Giacometti, Picasso, Munch or Andy Warhol.
From 1979 to 1999, all Western art was locked away in the Museum's vault as part of Ayatollah Khomeini’s campaign against the “Westoxification” of Iran.
Today, the Western art is only exhibited...