An exhibition at Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie of the collection of Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art faces a short delay after the resignation of the Iranian Culture Minister Ali Jannati in October, the Berlin museums authority says. Berlin is to be the first foreign host of the collection assembled under the auspices of the last empress, Farah Pahlavi. It includes works by Picasso, Rothko, Kandinsky, Pollock, Warhol and Bacon acquired before the Iranian Revolution in 1979, as well as Iranian artists. The exhibition is scheduled to run from December 2016 to February 2017.
“The latest changes in the Iranian Culture Ministry have unfortunately led to delays unforeseen by all sides,” says the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the organisation which manages Berlin’s museums. “The original opening date of 4 December no longer looks certain.” The foundation said it is confident the show will still open in December.
Jannati came under fire from the conservative press and religious leaders in Iran for his reforming stance. He was criticised for approving concerts in towns including the holy city of Mashhad, a destination for pilgrims to the tomb of Imam Reza.
The deal to show the Tehran collection in Berlin was described by the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as “a signal of a new cultural and social openness that we want to use to broaden our dialogue with Iranian society, on controversial subjects too.”