The Imam Ali Religious Arts Museum in Tehran, Iran, is missing 30 paintings from its collections after they were removed from the premises earlier this summer under the pretense of an offsite exhibition that reportedly never happened. The news was revealed during the Tehran City Council’s weekly meeting on Sunday, September 15, during which council member Nasser Amani stated that the whereabouts of the paintings remain unknown despite multiple follow-ups from the municipal museum’s authorities.
During the meeting, Amani explained that the paintings were handed off to an unknown party outside of the municipality in July, and that there was no official documentation regarding the lending. The council member alleged that a single work from the swath of missing paintings was valued at 300 billion rials (~$500,000).
Since Amani’s public address on Sunday, some reports have emerged alleging that Majid Bagheri, deputy of planning and affairs of Tehran City Council, announced that the paintings have been returned to the museum. However, the museum’s director of public relations denied such claims, telling Tejarat News that the works were still missing.
“Apart from the financial value of the paintings, their spiritual value is very important,” the spokesperson continued, though they clarified that no works by 20th-century folk painter Hossein Qollar-Aghasi were reported missing.