Recently, a “National Auction” was held in Tehran, an auction which was strongly protested against by the Iranian cultural advocates. It has been reported that a number of these auctions have been held in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, during which exquisite historical and cultural works of Iranian national heritage have been sold and then sent to buyers outside of Iran. In fact, this week brought forth the seventh round of these auctions, in which 40 works of art and artifacts were sold in an auction called “Iranian and Islamic classics”.

After seven of these auctions selling many pieces of cultural and national heritage and the protests of many cultural advocates, Morteza Adibzadeh, a director of museums and historical properties in Iran, reacted online and announced, “No permission has been issued by the General Directorate of Museums .

However, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has said, “These auctions were licensed by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, and it was with such a license that we had promised to send them abroad in our catalogs.” It is clear that the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, which for 40 years has allowed such destruction, unauthorized excavations, and the illegal removal of cultural and historical works of Iranians, has once again denied that it has given permission to auction, sell, and remove these national heritage and cultural works and artifacts which belong to the whole nation.

Adibzadeh told reporters that “the only thing that can be done now is to prevent these works from going abroad” and in this way, the buyers from these seven series of illegal auctions will not be able to get their hands on the purchased works. In order to get these sold items out of Iran, the buyers have to resort to smugglers who also work under the supervision of people affiliated with the Islamic government in Iran.

Source: www.savepasargad.com