Iran's vast collection of Western art, much long hidden, re-emerges despite high tensions with US

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — As Iran faces increasing tensions with the West and turmoil at home, a new exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is displaying Western artwork including pieces not seen by the public in at least a decade.

The unveiling of the exhibition “Eye to Eye” has drawn numerous women, their hair uncovered, to the underground galleries of the museum in Tehran's Laleh Park. Their presence, while unacknowledged by authorities, shows the way life has changed inside Iran just in the last few years even as the country's theocracy presses forward with enriching uranium to near-weapons grade levels and launching attacks on Israel during the ongoing Mideast wars.

“The first feeling that came to me, and I told my parents, was that I can’t believe I’m seeing these works, which have always been kept far from our eyes,” said Aida Zarrin, a young woman at the museum.

“If such events are held here and we can see artworks like the rest of the world, it’s enough. They are really precious.”

The government of Iran’s Western-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his wife, the former Empress Farah Pahlavi, built the museum and acquired the vast collection in the late 1970s, when oil boomed and Western economies stagnated. Upon opening, it showed sensational works by Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock and other heavyweights, enhancing Iran’s cultural standing on the world stage.

But just two years later, in 1979, Shiite clerics ousted the shah and packed away the art in the museum’s vault. Some paintings — cubist, surrealist, impressionist and even pop art — sat untouched for decades to avoid offending Islamic values and the appearance of catering to Western sensibilities. Nearly everything is believed still to be there, though an Andy Warhol print of the empress was slashed during the revolution.

Today, the collection is likely worth billions of dollars. Even with Iran now cash-strapped under Western sanctions, officials with the museum have been able to advocate for keeping the collection, though there have been occasional trades in the past for items from Persian history. Those sanctions may increase under the next administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

As Iranian politics have thawed, re-frozen and thawed again, the collection resurfaces along with those changes.

Among the over 120 works being shown are ones from Picasso, Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon, along with celebrated Iranian artists. One of the Warhols, “Jacqueline Kennedy II,” is a silkscreen double image of the former U.S. first lady in mourning after the 1963 assassination of her husband, President John Kennedy. Another Warhol portrait of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger also garnered attention from the cellphone photo snappers.

“A lot of these works are important works in the history of art, and that’s why this show distinguishes itself from others,” said Jamal Arabzadeh, the exhibition's curator. ”A lot of people with less exposure to art have discovered the museum for the first time. ... We are seeing a part of the community that are discovering art and the museum and see the potential of this place, and this is something to be proud of.”

The presence of Western art comes as Iran's government has long fought against items like Barbie dolls and depictions of cartoon characters from “The Simpsons.” Such Western influences have been deemed un-Islamic in the past and have been seen as part of a “soft” cultural war against the Islamic Republic.

With a ticket costing the equivalent of 14 U.S. cents, the exhibition offers a rare government-sanctioned event not involving the country's politics or Shiite religion.

Among the visitors were many women defying the country's mandatory headscarf, or hijab, law. Crackdowns over the hijab have slowed down after Iran's presidential election in July that elected reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, though individual cases of arrest continue to draw anger.

And for many, the cost of tickets to travel abroad given Iran's collapsing rial currency keep foreign museums out of reach.

“This is very attractive for art enthusiasts because not everyone can go and see museums abroad. It’s extremely exciting to see the works here,” said a woman who only gave her last name, Dolatshahi. “I had no idea I could see works by van Gogh and Picasso here.”

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

People visit an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranians line up to visit an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranians line up to visit an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranians line up to visit an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People visit an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Two women look at a portrait of late Nasser-e-Din Shah, a king of Qajar dynesty, painted by Iranian painter Mohammad Ghaffari, also known as Kamal-ol-Molk, as they visit an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Visitors look at artworks by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso as one of them takes a snapshot while visiting an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People visit an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman takes a snapshot of a portrait of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger by American artist Andy Warhol as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A visitor looks at an artwork by American artist Chuck Close as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People visit an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Visitors look at a painting by the French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec while visiting an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People take snap shots next to China's late leader Mao Zedong painting by American artist Andy Warhol as they visit an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

LONDON (AP) — Indigenous leaders from the Wampis Nation in Peru are urging lawmakers at the House of Commons in London to ban international banks' support for Amazon oil activities they say harm their ancestral rainforests.

HSBC bank, based in the United Kingdom, JPMorgan Chase in the United States and Santander in Spain helped finance the state-owned oil company Petroperu as it sought to upgrade a coastal refinery. The plant processes crude oil from a 680-mile (1,094-kilometer) pipeline that runs through rainforest.

In the last decade there have been dozens of leaks along the pipeline.

“We’ve been conserving our forest for over 7,000 years,” Pamuk Teófilo Kukush Pati, a Wampis leader, told The Associated Press after meetings on Thursday. The group planned to continue their visit Friday.

Now their fishing waters have been badly polluted, he said, and “there is no guarantee of life ... we are in a very grave situation.”

“Most alarming is the fact we find out that various banks fund Petroperu,” said Tsanim Evaristo Wajai Asamat, another Wampis leader. "And these things are happening all across the Amazon.”

The banks acted as “bookrunners” on a $1 billion bond offering for the refinery work in 2021, first reported by the U.K. nonprofit Bureau of Investigative Journalism. When banks act as bookrunners, they advertise the bonds to their customers and use their reputation to give investors confidence. Financial data provider Dealogic estimates each bank made $583,000 in fees.

A spokeswoman for Santander bank said via email that the company followed all relevant environmental regulations and does a careful analysis before backing companies that operate in the Amazon. A JPMorgan spokeswoman said Indigenous rights are a fundamental consideration across their business. A spokeswoman for HSBC said in a statement that it places restrictions on backing projects in the Amazon.

In the last decade, there were 89 leaks from the pipeline, Petroperu said in an email. It said only two were caused by equipment failure — criminals or natural forces caused the rest. Petroperu has spent more than $180 million cleaning up the last decade’s oil spills, it said.

More than 15,000 Wampis live on some 5,000 square miles (13,000 square kilometers) of forest and wetland in northern Peru. Their territory is home to hundreds of species of fish and rare birds.

The people made headlines in 2015 when they declared an autonomous government, in part to protect their environment. The government of Peru does not recognize it.

According to Petroperu's bond prospectus for the refinery project, which provides transparency to investors, bond buyers faced financial risks “relating to the effects of oil leaks on local and indigenous communities.” There could be protests, fines, compensation and negative publicity, it warned, and Indigenous communities had “taken hostile measures against our facilities and installations on various occasions.”

The prospectus also said there were criminal investigations being conducted by Peruvian prosecutors over oil spills that included former Petroperu executives. Petroperu has since denied that people at its executive level are being investigated, saying that two lower-level employees were among those of interest to prosecutors. The company said via email that it's cooperating with the investigation.

The year after the bond deal, in 2022, Peruvian regulators penalized Petroperu with 66 fines, including for new oil spills along the pipeline. The three banks did business with Petroperu again last year, providing advice as the oil company sought to change the terms of its debt.

The Wampis are also unhappy about illegal logging and mining on their territory. They were among several delegations also pressing Thursday for a proposed law that would make it a crime for British businesses to harm the environment and threaten human rights.

Delegations from Colombia, Liberia and Mexico met with a baroness, then with senior officials at both the U.K. Foreign Office and Environment Department.

Jesús Javier Thomas González, from northern Mexico, spoke of a ten-year battle with a mining company listed on the London Stock Exchange that he said illegally occupied and devastated their land.

The company has “economic and political influence in Mexico that is huge,” he said. It's a good corporate citizen in the UK, he said, “but in Mexico they behave in a different way.”

A U.K. government spokesman said British firms should always act to avoid environmental harms, and its approach to tackling those that don't is under constant review.

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Grattan reported from Bogota, Colombia.

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Indigenous leaders from the Wampis Nation in Peru, from left, Pamuk Teofilo Kukush Pati, Tsanim Evaristo Wajai Asamat and Jesus Javier Thomas Gonzalez, from Mexico, pose in St. Stephen's Hall in London, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Indigenous leaders from the Wampis Nation in Peru, Pamuk Teofilo Kukush Pati, left, and Tsanim Evaristo Wajai Asamat, back right, arrive the House of Parliament in London, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Indigenous leaders from the Wampis Nation in Peru, Tsanim Evaristo Wajai Asamat, left, and Pamuk Teofilo Kukush Pati, pose inside the Westminster Hall in London, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)