The Missing Masterpiece of Tehran
by Bradley Hope
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As revolution reached Tehran, soldiers walked into its new museum of modern art and the Shahbanu’s Western masterpieces went into the basement. Chapter 5 of The Missing Masterpiece of Tehran, free with your email.
Welcome to Whale Hunting, where we follow the people who move money, art and power across borders, and the deals they would rather keep quiet.
My new book, The Missing Masterpiece of Tehran, is out today as a Random House Audiobook Original, read by Christian Coulson.
A fortnight ago I wrote here about the trade at the centre of the book: Willem de Kooning’s Woman III for 118 paintings from the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp. Today I want to show you how the de Kooning came to be sitting in a basement in Tehran in the first place.
In October 1977, Farah Pahlavi opened the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, its collection full of Picassos, Pollocks and Warhols, and Woman III. Fifteen months later, the Shah was gone. What follows is the book’s fifth chapter, lightly edited to stand on its own: the winter the museum’s staff, a squad of soldiers and the English art dealer Oliver Hoare watched the revolution arrive.
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