Willem de Kooning never would have dreamed his paintings would someday aid a deranged Ayatollah fund an atomic war chest and perhaps even trigger WWIII.
Thanks to John's Kerry's grand acts of obfuscation, Iran's theocratical junta may do just that. Iran is now open for business – like the mouth of a tornado. Money, business propositions and funds are flowing into Tehran and so far little has come out.
Art is part of this scheme, which it shouldn't be since Mohammed was reputed to have said "all the painters who make pictures would be in the fire of Hell." Perhaps Khamenei feels that since Warhol and Pollock are already "in the fire of Hell," he well as make a few bucks off them. These are some of the giants of Western art whose works were collected by the former Empress of Iran, Farah Pahlavi.
Considered a world-class collection by any standards, Pahlavi's stash also includes pieces by celebrated artists of the modern period. Claude Monet, René Magritte, Roy Lichtenstein, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Picasso and other painters are represented. Heavy emphasis is on abstract expressionism. Sculptures have recently been unearthed by Giacometti, Ernst and Moore. Estimated to be worth $3 billion, many are anxious to see these works long thought lost.
According to Forbes' writers who scoped out the collection at Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art, directors must answer to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. They only hang limited numbers of Western pieces for several weeks of the year. They also tread on eggshells to avoid politically inexpedient facts. Directors from the 1970s either fled the country or stood sentry over the trove to protect from theft and spasms of reactionary Islamic fervor.
Benefactor Empress Farah still lives and must never be alluded to, although she is the only reason either the art or the Tehran Museum exists. Big, bad taboos are acknowledging that significant numbers of Jewish artists are represented, and a smattering of homosexuals as well.
Iran's Shah was deposed by a Western-backed coup in 1979 and replaced with Neanderthals with Korans in one hand and a noose in the other. Civilization was put on hold there and art exhibits forbidden unless they met strict religious tests. This left some lovely tessellated tilework as well as calligraphy to announce the hangings.
Someone was clever enough to stash the Empress' collection in a basement awaiting greener political pastures. Fortunately for connoisseurs, the Guards tended canvas more kindly than their disposable human victims. Now the atomic Ayatollah and Revolutionary Guards are officially queuing up for a cut in the art they criminalize.
Mighty feats of Obama/Kerry penmanship opened the door for the Empress' collection to travel the world. Museums in Washington, D.C., Frankfurt and Paris are keen to show parts of the collection. Will they join the rest of the world eager to pave Iran's radioactive pockets?
Apparently the Berlin State Museums of Modern Art have brokered a deal to borrow 30 of the Western works and 30 Iranian for German viewers next fall. Their agreement also brings new meaning to the concept of a "loan" charging a $3 million "fee." No other art institution on earth has ever come close to this before.
Although it's considered rather gauche and not in the spirit of cultural sharing, a few museums have resorted to the practice. Notably, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) caused heated controversy over regular loan fees. But the MFA doesn't mix up batches of uranium-235 to use against New York in the basement. We assume.
In contrast, the Smithsonian museums charge borrowing institutions only a "loan processing fee" of $200 per object, plus costs to the museum. Ironically the Hirschhorn Museum (part of Smithsonian complex) is in early discussions to host the Iranian exhibit. A Smithsonian spokeswoman claimed loan fees haven't "been discussed as yet." But they will.
Conspicuously missing is any sense of outrage over imprisoned and murdered Iranians and the militant aggression of this regime aimed at everyone else. There is only rejoicing that the lost Pollock prodigals have come home. While that's all well and good, it bodes sinister for the future of human rights in the world.
Artists, liberal ones at least, seem to have thoroughly gotten over their love affair with democracy and human rights. Freedom is so last millennium, and now rationed for strictly politically purposes. The last bit of seething indignation the art community managed to collectively summon was for South African apartheid, which ended in 1994.
"Artists United Against Apartheid" was a protest group founded by activist/performer Steven Van Zandt in 1985 to protesting South African apartheid. Dozens of top performing and visual artists joined the ranks. Since then, narrow self-interest has left intelligentsia, artists and sundry liberals free to blithely ignore several genocide campaigns and a global Islamic war machine.
Shamefully, the resurrected moniker redressed as "Artists Against Apartheid" is only a front for bitter anti-Semitism. There isn't space to count all the obloquy. But that hasn't stopped a stampede of artists using the occasion to boycott Israel and snub Jews, while feeling smugly superior. Perhaps their funding comes from Iran.
Primitive faith in the power of money and sheer brilliancy of John Kerry is like a spell which, if believed in with all our hearts, will magically bring peace to Iran. Khamenei is not interested in living in Disneyland, but will take our money.
Meanwhile life at the centrifugal headquarters goes on. Rome's museum of Modern art, MaXXI, is reportedly next in line to exhibit the treasure. Money appears to be no deterrent to most of the applicants.
Iranian art in the U.S. may open a Pandora's box yet. One is the issue of legality, as all sanction laws against Iran are not yet magically erased by the Obama administration. Murkier and more controversial are standing judgements by terror victim families against Iran. Will they be allowed to seize Iranian assets in the form of a $3 billion art exhibit?
Threats of justice and restitution hampered exhibits in the past, and the few sales have been shady and highly covert. One was arranged by 1991 by Arthur Houghton III, who was a diplomat working in the White House on the war on drugs – supposedly. It was also just after the first Iraq war, and the region was very destabilized at the time. Hiding his activities from his boss (Bush Senior #41), Houghton arranged the sale of de Kooning's "Woman III" from a Viennese airport. It resold in 2006 for $137.5 million to hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen without a hitch. Pretty slick.
Sanction attorneys note that U.S. victims have aggressively sought to "execute against Iran's cultural heritage" in the past, including even the Persepolis tablets. So a Warhol or Pollock won't deter their claims. The United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) will help determine this.
Iran's new BFFs in the U.S. State Department may keep their big protective mitts over the collection for Papa Khamenei. Countering this, three separate pieces of new Iran sanctions legislation have been proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives over just the past few weeks. They seek to "complicate the task of conducting trade-related dealings with Iran in the months ahead" for various reasons, including justice for terror survivors.
Art museums should take heed that they are wading into legal and ethical entanglements in the rush to exhibit. Sanctions attorneys warn that those interested in "resuming trade relationships with Iran" or Iranian entities should "closely follow the path of these legislative proposals, as the legislation may prove consequential to their activities."
Hirshhorn's director, Melissa Chiu, acknowledges that the exhibition in D.C. is still dependent on future "political and legal circumstances."
Not only is the loan-for-cash scheme going swimmingly, but thanks to the U.S. State Department, more valuable works of art were just sent to Iran. Specifically, 14 pieces of American art were purchased in 1978 by the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (meaning by the Empress, pre-revolution). These were turned over to Iran after many years. They were not particularly thankful.
So far the score is: Iran Revolutionary Guards 2, U.S. terror survivors 0. If this keeps up Iran will have its yellowcake and eat it too.
Sources
- Germany could pay $3m to borrow Tehran’s Modern art
- The First International Forum on Communication and City Art Tourism will be held on in Tehran
- Iran Has Been Hiding One of the World’s Great Collections of Modern Art
- Iran’s Prized Collection of Western Art Might Be Coming to America, but Don’t Count on It