Fifteen hundred square metres of space this exhibition area in berlin is committed to gallery has been prepared for sixty works from the Tehran Museum of contemporary art works that have never before been shown in the west its the start of a planned Cultural Exchange intended to strengthen relations between iran and the west. But it never came to that just weeks before it was due to open authorities in iran prevented the artworks from leaving the country. Come run veba has lived in spain and france since the late one nine hundred seventy s. The architect artist and collector left his homeland a year before the iranian revolution. Dba knows the tehran collection more intimately than most for he was once closely associated with it and he still spends a lot of time thinking about whats become of it he is the architect who designed the Tehran Museum of contemporary art in the one nine hundred seventy s. Debo was also its first director of the Tehran Museum of contemporary art held the largest and most valuable collection of contemporary art outside europe and north america. Tehran the capital of iran in the one nine hundred seventy s. The city experienced a Rapid Transformation into a modern metropolis western consumer goods were readily available the surge in oil prices allowed the city to become a hug for International Business and lifestyle. The only thing missing was a place to show modern art. Empress. Actively promoted culture and art in iran. Because more. Mccarthy. Today she lives in paris she left iran for a life in exile on january sixteenth one thousand nine hundred seventy nine and headed to the city where she had studied architecture years earlier. Art plays an Important Role in my life that without it my life would be empty the history of iran dates back thousands of years this is a civilization rich in art and culture and it has produced many extraordinary artists in various fields of art be it architecture poetry or literature. In one thousand nine hundred sixty seven there was festival of arts was founded at the behest of embers from raw. Both iranian and International Artists were invited to take part in this unique festivals of on guard orientation attracted global attention. Was. The empress helped shape the countrys cultural policy of the day giving it a very distinct style. She she had cultural ambitions for her country. Since. The story of the contemporary museum in tehran began when i went to an exhibition like it was where the city theater of tehran city is today i recalled the artists i ran directly saying to me it would be nice if there was a place of our works would be preserved forever for you during those steam q karo me mood where i hamish i think back when i got the idea of creating a museum for iranian artists you need a solution you. Irani. It was not the only museum she had built but it was the most important one. Architect come around dba had just completed his studies in washington d. C. He spent a lot of time thinking about a contemporary art museum in tehran as her cousin he was close to empress faraj she commissioned him to design the museum. My money is something the money would get my mind. In terms of architecture i was interested in finding an identity. And we wanted the building to have an iranian force. I cant think of the persian word for it. But yes i would say identity is the proper word. Yet no no i have a whole. Yes hussien keith. I very much wanted the museum to reflect a sense of iranian identity. In. The us that either they eat by design the buildings or that the museum with its light inlets he would be reminiscent of desert town thats. Because they tend to have very interesting routes and they have bugbear wind towers and domes like you see on mosques that. The building was built on a site surrounded by an unfinished park. In the center of the museum and visible from all parts of the Main Building spiral walkway is oil pool a sculpture by japanese artist nora yuki her gucci. Reflected light gives it the look of a dark mirror. It was installed in one thousand nine hundred seventy seven. Come around often talks about the past with his family and friends. He met his wife negara in the Tehran Museum she worked there as a curator and. This was the shiny that. When word got around it and chris prada the uranian government and the shah were buying our. Members of the art world naturally approach them to suggest works to buy. Iran was very wealthy at the time and the International Art market was out a low point. Some of the works proposed were selected and bought from and. That. Eventually the collection grew to include well over three thousand works by both iranian and International Artists painting such as a mural on indian red ground by Jackson Pollock found their way there. Along with works by brock. Roy lichtenstein rauschenberg. And many others. Financed by petrol dollars from the sale of oil its total cost is still a mystery but the criticism that iran spent too much money on art continues to annoy cameron dba to this day how do you do you can my account of that and how much transactions were completely above board. That i received. If you john someone recently claimed that they had all the purchase receipts at that moment and. Someone else said the museum had lost the money you know but i still have them is that i can get them from the library. But. In the east. Here is the list of everything i bought everything is listed here. Every work purchased while i was director of the museum is recorded here in the aftermath. Cameron dba mainly bought works by contemporary american artists at prices that are absurdly low by todays standards. Says. The total amount spent on art purchases while he was the Museum Director was about three and a half Million Dollars. This is true that for so. This it like to be done well it was a fortune that has now multiplied in value. At that time i was fortunate to have had the chance to meet some of the artists myself and for example i met shy guys in the south of france. And henry more the more they were hard yes warhol it was very interesting to see warhol if he came to iran and made part of the shah and a few others he was a very quiet and gentle man a little shy we had a good record he would have a bit to me but how do esteem. Almost forty years ago on the morning of the day the museum was to be opened in tehran come runty but woke up with his heart pounding he was nervous it was supposed to be a major event. He wanted to celebrate a festival of art as well as demonstrate irans ability to hold its own on the International Level. It was the evening of october thirteenth one nine hundred seventy seven. The date marked both. Birthday and the opening of the museum in tehran. Of on guard artists from all over the world gave performances. He was working as a photographer in the museum. So you had me at that time it all seemed so new to me and somewhat bizarre never mind what it was like for the general public with no relation to it. On the pictures i took at that time you can see their stunned reactions while i was taking pictures i realized what a wide gulf there was between the guard elite and average citizens back so that was more than the population would accept at that time and i wanted to capture all the reactions both from the intellectuals who were taking part in the celebrations and from those who were observing the event from the outside and did not understand what was going on. The pictures she took back have never been shown in public anything showing the monarchy had to be after the revolution and remain so to this day. And there is yet another reason why there are no pictures of the opening night. Show. When the star rived he dipped his hand into the pool of oil his hands got dirty everyone stood there and shock until farrar started to laugh then everyone laughed and things quieted down again. But afterwards all the negatives of the pictures taken that evening were collected and destroyed because this moment was not meant to be recorded should. The Show Secret Service saw to that. The fact that the shahs hand has been dirtied with oil could be seen as a symbolic historical event because oil had polluted Iranian Society. That was not an ecological terms. Borders the idea about it but in the sense that a lot of money came into society and upset the existing class system. Of childish i the iranian revolution started in one nine hundred Seventy Eight among other things it was the populations reckoning with the shah and the imperial family for its pomp and extravagance and its pandering to the west. The im one card was no longer received with approval. I. Millions took to the streets of tehran in support of their new leader they saw him as their liberated from the shards dictatorship. Was. I. On february first one nine hundred seventy nine the figurehead of the revolution the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to iran from exile in paris from then on Everything Associated with the west was condemned banished and destroyed those who escaped were concerned about the art they had just won. But what no one knew was someone was watching over it. Its nice to see them ive heard about him i was so happy about it he was. Really someone who looked after the pictures. Every day for almost forty years. Has been walking down the long corridor to the basement of the Tehran Museum of contemporary art. Under the shah he had been employed there as a driver. Every day there were demonstrations against the shah here a lot of students were on the street the campus is close by we saw it all on the eleventh of february nine hundred seventy nine the revolution triumphed. Then a few came from the revolutionary committee is. Yes i think thats what it was called back then but im no longer exactly sure and they occupied the museum they told my coworkers they could leave everyone else went home much as i was the one they kept on with the. Hour i mean im sure i knew nothing about heart but i realized that when they put me in charge of this treasure i had to pull myself together and take good care of it. Hoping to get the. Max and monet rothko. At first for russia because he saw their works as little more than paint on canvas. Month by that mission after my ignorance led me to acquire as much knowledge as i could of course i knew nothing about ott. But if i try to obtain information from different books there was no internet back then. I had to search through books for days just to get a Little Information about a work eventually i would find something and document it for the museum. Child whos got me with understaffing. Probably the most precious piece in the vault is Jackson Pollocks mural on indian red ground its estimated to be worth as much as two hundred fifty Million Dollars and is considered one of pollocks greatest works. Shahbazi the driver watched over one of the worlds most valuable Art Collections. Its value today is estimated at around three billion dollars. Called up my. Daughter gave me the courage to carry out this task in this way im not. Shes a tears of joy im simply happy i may not have been a good person to god. God was good to me for putting me here today. I apologize for the tears i cant control myself yes. Please forgive me. This treasure is so incredibly important to me. Im sure there are only a few people here in the museum know how much i love this treasure. So much. Iran is coming back to life after years of sanctions against the country and its nuclear program. The Historic Nuclear Agreement was signed in july twenty fifteen most of the sanctions were lifted as a result Iranian Society was keen to reengage with the world and gain respect. It was an opportunity to resume the cultural dialogue. The outstanding collection of contemporary american and european art hidden in the basement of the Tehran Museum was widely talked about even in the past museums had tried to show irans contemporary Art Collection but mutual trust had to be built. In the end berlin was chosen to present the western masterpieces and works by iranian artists plans were made to mount the exhibition in the the mail the gallery it was a sensational coup for the german capital. As concept it on yes it all started as a joint venture between two museums our National Gallery and the t. M. O. C. A. Interrogatively the auto painter exhibition was curated by the Deputy Director of the National Gallery us. And he came into contact with colleagues that t. M. O. Ca hes above all however he came into contact with the collection dozens of its incredible potential was just slumbering in the basement submitted of course the support of the German Foreign office was vital from the very beginnings as makings on its. Thirty works by International Artists from the tehran collection were to be shown as well as thirty works by Twentieth Century iranian artists. In spite of all the restrictions iran still has more artists today than ever before. Here at one of tehrans most renowned art schools the majority of students are women a development that demonstrates the extent to which women have become emancipated over the past thirty eight years despite all the restrictions they have won their place in the Islamic Republic in the past only two to three women would be present at an art lecture. Irans most famous sculptor remembers it all well. Parviz town of ali teaches here at the mom their institute of art in tehran one of his sculptures was to be sent to the exhibition in berlin. For him an essential aspect of the exhibition was to show the mutual influence of already and and occident. Proud of how india toggle flipout highgate you or your family its about the intersections between iranian and western culture. Our work is often influenced by western schools because we didnt have our own tradition of sculpture so we had a poetic and literary tradition but we had very little tradition when it comes to spatial content except in architecture. Ah. You know on their mentality today is very rainy and. Todays iranian woman wants to express herself to show herself in the best possible light. Is. When i turned forty or fifty years ago that didnt exist i mean everyone was emulating the west or those that are today theyre proud of themselves and that is a good thing so they used techniques his instruments for their works. But they want to express their own feelings. To. Quote and this is an interconnection a marriage between iran and the west between east and west. Yorks is there watch if you dont shout welcome. To our city was today more than ever the children of the revolution are emancipating themselves and questioning their role and that of the Islamic Republic was. This thats the law that is still at our generation dares to show itself more we women want to prove that if you men are allowed to have your way and do whatever you want and we women can do the same even though we have no place to do it well take it anyway yes our generation is definitely more rebellious. Minus sat thats the you know we. Are the brown strands are my mothers hair all the rest is mine. Badaun raises the question of what happens when you go out onto the streets in tehran wearing a headscarf made up your own hair i dont harm someone in that so will that really be a problem and our project is to get people to think about that. The course says because they excel at matter but they decide that. This. Is. The new generation has become more courageous the art scene in particular has felt the limits of the Islamic Republic since its foundation sometimes the artists moves sometimes they win. In the. You will see if you are really the new generation is more creative than before and everyone can express themselves as they wish for a loan and its a new kind of freedom of independence. Theres no large group which they have to belong to yes. There is a Cherry Blossom that you see before the revolution and in the one nine hundred fifty s. And sixtys. There was a period in which our painters were proud to look to the west. At that time are good artists went abroad to italy france. When they came back they were happy and proud to say they had studied says and picasso or monet theres was this they were proud to say they were impressionists that they could paint like impressionists. And then came a time when iranian artists became aware of the issues in their country they wanted to express themselves through iranian thinks is that. The revolution many artists became revolutionaries. Those who they were artists who took part in the revolution. And wanted to express things related to it you know their name and any more bloodshed in society stairs or each and all these they were politically minded as you will see with and there you. Go. Pervious town of ali is for mill year with the experiences of iranian artists in recent decades he is one of the most prominent internationally as well. He wants to teach his students it is not the iranian in their work that makes them artists but the art they carry within themselves. As why you want to focus is less on trying to get an iranian artist out of us than on trying to get us out of us he wants to know what were capable of what makes up our essence. He wants to know why we should be turned into a new artist he wants to know whats inside of us and wants us to represent exactly that he has made it possible for us to believe in ourselves back in college that much and when i get the chance now the works are being taken from the vaults and taken abroad and shown in berlin in addition to berlin they could be exhibited in many other places these works are very pure and untouched they show a new perspective they show how people in iran thought thirty years ago and which works of art they can. Acted to influence the next generations culture find it must die and the sustenance was better. Off. With thirty iranian and thirty western works the berlin exhibition was also to be an opportunity to reveal the observers established patterns of perception thats what ton of ali was hoping for. Mon cafe you think im very happy about it i think its a good step. You know so it would be a pity to keep these works in prison without anyone being aware of their existence you know matters and it was a song hes taken or not museum vault for years and never got out its a good thing that not only the iranian people can see them but the whole world maybe. This opens the door to Cultural Exchange when we acquired these works everyone thought that iran was a third world country and not worthy of art hardly the money you dont have a fake make out and you dont. You know so now theyre. Even forty years ago iran was already seeking acceptance on an International Level and looking to free itself from western influences. Ton of only his guiding principle is an artist doesnt have to adhere to western ways of seeing in order to be an artist. And artists should not seek acceptance from outside himself neither from orient nor occident. From. The date of the berlin opening was approaching increasing media interest fueled criticism of the Cultural Exchange with the Islamic Republic from various quarters. One accusation was that germany would be giving iran money through the prussians Cultural Heritage foundation. And is in that the worlds major museums pay low ratings when loan fiends are expected then we say ok sorry were out of that was clear to us from the outset and we quickly made it clear to our iranian colleagues that this is not about known fees but about a serious calculation of an exhibition of this kind of you know. All the art works being brought to berlin that dated from before nine hundred forty five were also checked for provenance. Pot singer the president of the pression Cultural HeritageFoundation Also had to deal with assertions that some of the works in iran were forgeries. And wed heard that some works had allegedly been replaced with forgeries over the decades and that the originals had been sold for huge sums of money but you cant just say that these are bandits so its hard to say anything about them at all just because of the importance of these works if they were to be sold abroad whether to museums or private parties id find it very hard to believe that you wouldnt hear anything about it you know die and be prepared because its one of optics that when you fear that. In tehran preparations continue despite growing criticism of the Cultural Exchange this sculpture by parviz town of ali is destined for berlin. Freestore. And a few of her colleagues from the gmail to gallery were sent to the iranian capital to prepare three particularly problematic works for transport to berlin. Did to console the castle which i have now prepared that needed to be neatly mounted in its frame then it needed vibration protection that something pushed between the rear surface and the canvas to prevent or reduce vibrations during transport all thats been taken care of and the condition of the work recorded prior to its dispatch to germany just before the spec ask doctors. One cuts yes existing or potential damage is noted in advance of times fought. The fish women can stay in. A climate resistant shipping crate is custom made for each priceless work of art theyre designed to prevent any further damage to the unique pieces. Punish russia cannot confirm the claims that the art was not properly stored down here in the basement she is reminded of the vaults of the National Gallery and berlin. Came on that theres an air conditioner so that much i can say and i mean all this has obviously been dormant for a long time you can see that they havent been moved much its all a bit neglected and dusty but by and large the collection is in Good Condition someone has been looking after at least. The. In berlin advance ticket sales had already begun in spite of rumors that conservative circles in iran were against the project. But that didnt diminish the Public Interest in fact on the contrary. It doesnt address and all the interest in this exhibition is tremendous that is clear and it comes from different places as now you can also see that very clearly on the one hand simply seen these warhols and hansens and rothkos they are really so important in the history of art especially that of the second half of the Twentieth Century and theyll finally be seen again because thats one thing that it is and then of course there is already such a special interest in the fact that it comes from iran and of course then you think back to the shahs time when the collection originated the works from this museum have a great history don as a mathieson vaca olson was. Difficult and expectations for this Cultural Exchange were high and not just in germany. Preparations were in full swing for the eagerly awaited opening day. All the difficulties it seems had been resolved and everyone had great hopes for their own form of dialogue between cultures. But then things suddenly took a turn for the worse the pression Cultural Heritage foundation cancelled the exhibition. For once were summoned emotionally to go in the end it became increasingly difficult for us because everything that needed to be resolved the selection of the works questions about transport and insurance etc had been resolved but in order to actually start the ball rolling so to speak to begin packing them for transport we needed export permits and they were not issued in time thats when we said it was now impossible for us to do any further planning under such conditions as we can on getting rich merchants. And i believe that this exhibition had to come about this dialogue between western art of the Twentieth Century and iranian art of the Twentieth Century would have changed perceptions of iran in germany and europe and among the public this is a ticket i think you have to do away with stereotypes there is the stereotype of a regime of a political constitution but of course a society is also made up of people and societies are usually much more colorful mentioned you know and it is a shock and it is a shock isnt it if you can talk. Gauging in a discourse that does not make the world less secure or more warlike but actually makes it more peaceful in eventually leads to more understanding only happens through the understanding of people and societies in different countries. Parts twenty one special twenty eight Team Frankfurt book fair. And some literature from georgia this years guest of on. Political trends and the. Standard we speak with the Award Winners of the biggest book fair the walk. Through numbers the. Tears upon ways to survive narratives like just hide your identity. Bangladesh the true face of the country look like. Freedom independence a separation of state and church that used to be important but for decades political infighting here has hindered progress and islamised extremists are gaining more influence democracy and the rule of law are on shaky ground if this continues down love it should be. Made made in. An occupation of. Bangladesh the dawn of islamism and exclusive d. W. Report starts october eighteenth. This is the c. W. News live from Berlin Germany prepares for a political shake up its election day in bavaria one of germanys richest and most conservative states but voters are in a rebellious mood and there could be serious aftershocks in berlin we are live in munich also coming up a new deadline looms in syria a Demilitarized Zone for to protect civilians is due to take effect on monday but there are reports that hard line