Some of the world's greatest modern art has been kept in a vault in Tehran

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A Tehran Art University student looks at a painting by 20th century U.S. artist Jackson Pollock at Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art June 19, 2010.

When Peter Waldman, a reporter for Bloomberg's Businessweek, visited Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art, he wasn't prepared for what he saw.

"You walk in and there’s a foyer and in the foyer there’s kind of a spiraling walkway that goes downward literally from the street," he says, "so you’re headed down into the ground."

As you go down, there's a storage units, where the museum holds some of its art. But its exact contents have been kept secret for 36 years.

"I was just blown away that you could have Monet and Matisse and Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin and Van Gogh and all of these artists — and Warhol — sitting in a vault beneath a museum thousands of miles away from any European or American capital and no one really knows," Waldman says.

The art was purchased in the 1970s by Empress Farah Pahlavi, the wife of Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Iranian women look at a painting by Roy Lichtenstein in the museum of contemporary art in Tehran. This untitled painting was painted in 1965.

Iranian women look at a painting by Roy Lichtenstein in the museum of contemporary art in Tehran. This untitled painting was painted in 1965.

Credit:

Reuters

An art-lover herself, the empress wanted to build a museum in Tehran and fill it with the world's greatest modern and contemporary art. Soon, works from artists like Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Roy Lichtenstein and others were headed to Tehran.

The museum was built and the artwork was in place. But in 1979, just as the public was about to get a glimpse of these valuable pieces, the Islamic Revolution happened.

"These people were not crazy about Western culture," says Waldman "and the concern for the art was that it might be dispersed, it might be sold or be destroyed."

But in the hectic days of the Revolution, there was one man, Firouz Shabazi Moghadam, who took it upon himself to safeguard the art. Shabazi, now 63, was 27 when he went to work for the museum.

"He went to work as a driver for a linoleum flooring company and then was hired at the museum right before it opened in 1977," says Waldman, who met with Shabazi in Tehran.

After those who ran the museum fled the country, Shabazi took over. He moved the artwork into storage in the basement of the museum and took the keys.

"He became the protector of the art," says Waldman.

Shabazi had tears in his eye when he told Waldman that, normally, he's a fearful man, but with this museum and its content, he was like a lion. Shabazi's perseverance paid off. More than 1500 masterpieces survived the revolution — and 36 years of storage.

Some of the pieces have been shown in Tehran since the revolution, but a lot has never left the vault.

An Iranian man takes a picture of a painting by 19th century painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec during the Modern Art Movement exhibition at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran August 29, 2005.

An Iranian man takes a picture of a painting by 19th century painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec during the Modern Art Movement exhibition at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran August 29, 2005.

Credit:

REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl

But there's new interest in showcasing them. Just this week, an exhibition opened in Tehran that displayed some of the Western pieces, as well as an ones by Iranian artist Farideh Lashai.

Germano Celant, a well-known Italian art historian and critic, was one of the curators. He was in Tehran for the opening of the exhibition.

"It was totally packed opening," he says. "Mostly young people, curious and taking notes. It was incredible for me."

Celant says now, with a somewhat moderate government in power in Tehran, there's an opening to show Western art in the museums. Just the fact that he was invited to curate the exhibit in Tehran is telling, he says.

Last summer's nuclear deal between Iran and world powers has also created optimism about more cultural exchange between Iran and the West.

Iran’s minister of culture, Ali Jannati, hinted at this when he attended a preview of the exhibition in Tehran.

“This is a first step and we hope to have more mutual cooperation to showcase outstanding Iranian artists as well as displaying more works from our foreign art collection,” he told AFP.

There is now a tentative agreement between Iran and Germany to send 60 pieces to Berlin next fall. Other shows could follow in Italy and even at Washington's Hirshhorn Museum.

But of course, shipping parts of an estimated $5 to $10 billion worth of art has its challenges.

"There's no insurance coverage on this," says Celant. "Not the pieces themselves, but when they're taken out. What if something happens on the streets?"

So at least until next fall, Andy Warhol’s ‘Maos’ and Jackson Pollock’s ‘Mural on Indian Ground’ and the rest of the artwork will very likely stay in Tehran.

Under the watchful eyes of Shabazi the lion.

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