Iranians Stop Sale of Ancient Achaemenid Relief at Art Fair in New York
Independent Aggregator of Iran related News/Events, Kodoom.com: According to New York Times, last Friday two prosecutors and three police officers marched into The European Fine Art Fair at the Park Avenue Armory in New York to seize an ancient limestone bas-relief of a Persian Achaemenid soldier with shield and spear, which once adorned a building in the ruins of Persepolis in Iran. The relief is worth about $1.2 million and was being offered for sale by Rupert Wace, a well-known dealer in antiquities in London who has now removed the image from his website.
In an statement, Mr. Wace said he had bought the relief from an insurance company, who had acquired it legally from a museum in Montreal, where it had been displayed since the 1950s.
Iran's Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization is seeking repatriation of the piece through legal channels.
The bas-relief is an eight-inch-square piece of carved limestone that was part of a long line of soldiers depicted on a balustrade at the central building on the Persepolis site. It dates to the Achaemenid dynasty — the First Persian Empire — and was made sometime between 510 and 330 B.C., when Persepolis was sacked by Alexander the Great.
The bas-relief is the latest in a string of antiquities the Manhattan district attorney’s office has seized from art dealers and museums in New York City as part of a concerted effort in recent years to recover ancient works. Those seizures have been led by the assistant district attorney Matthew Bogdanos, a classics scholar and colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve who played an important role in recovering antiquities stolen in Iraq during the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The district attorney’s office declined to comment on the evidence underpinning the search warrant. The possible charge listed on the papers is possession of stolen property. No one had been arrested in connection with the seizure on Sunday evening.
Related to History:
- Yazd, Iran's first historic city on UNESCO's world heritage list
- Amazon offers playing cards with Persian characters
- Two ancient cities unearthed in Iran (Pictures)
- A record 20 percent of Tehran City Council election candidates are women
- Nowruz and Lavash Bread Added by UNESCO to List of Cultural Heritage of Humanity
- Kerry, Zarif Share Chatham House Prize 2016
- Did Zarif's Meaningful Gift to Kerry Saved the Nuclear Talks?
- Iran wins first ever women's snooker medal in Asian Billiards
- Persian Square sign posted on busy California highway
- First ever Olympics medal for an American Muslim athlete with Hijab
- Land sinking near Iran's ancient Persepolis due to illegal drilling
- UNESCO adds Iran's ancient water channels (Qanats) to world Heritage list
- Iranian Studies, Omar Khayyam statue unveiled at Oklahoma University
- German string quartet performs at Iran's historic monument in Shiraz
- First Female Muslim Imam Leads Mosque Prayers in Denmark
Related to Justice:
- New film from Iranian American mastermind of US prison break and alleged penis severing torturer
- White nationalist: Trump not racist enough! Shocking behind the scenes video about Neo-Nazis
- Australia ignored pleas about Manus Island Iranian asylum seeker before his death
- Kardashian sued for $100 Million by Iranian American inventor and entrepreneur
- Guilty plea by Iranian-Canadian charged with sexual abuse of elderly women
- Video: If World Leaders Were Refugees
- Iranian American faces charges for hiding cameras in women's restroom
- Women in Iran's remote Province win record breaking seats in election
- Women can lead, pray next to men in this Berkeley mosque
- Iran's Olympics flag bearer insists on leaving Iran despite husband's ban
- Iranian American woman poisons, burns son to avenge husband's cheating
- Iranian pilot and crew disciplined for not delaying a flight to observe religious prayers
- Trump defends Detaining 5-year-old Iranian American Boy in Airport (Video)
- British Iranian Charity Founder Facing Prison in India Claims She is a Victim of Local Corruption
- Ailes Accused of Sexually Harassing Iranian American Journalist Rudi Bakhtiar
Related to Iranian Americans:
- Vandalism to banks, mosques blamed on protest movement organized by former Iranian TV anchor
- Brother and Sister Chess Prodigies Leave Iran After Being Penalized for Hijab and Israel
- 1st Born, First Iranian American film project features Kilmer, Baldwin, Abdo
- Iranian American researchers revolutionize Internet and data technology
- Who is Dara Khosrowshahi, the Iranian American CEO of Uber?
- New film from Iranian American mastermind of US prison break and alleged penis severing torturer
- Kardashian sued for $100 Million by Iranian American inventor and entrepreneur
- Iranian American astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli talks to CNN's Amanpour
- Mirzakhani's daughter ineligible for Iranian citizenship because of father
- Maryam Mirzakhani, Iranian math genius at Stanford, battling cancer
- Iranian American faces charges for hiding cameras in women's restroom
- Reza Pahlavi discusses with US Congressmen plans to overthrow Iranian government (Video)
- Iranian Americans among Immigrants from 37 Nationalities Honored on Ellis Island
- Iranian American Jasmin Moghbeli is selected by NASA for next generation of astronauts
- Iranian-American coach Roxy Kamal leads US women Futsal team to World Cup championship
