Iran Press/Iran News: "Epic Iran", which opens to the public on Saturday, features more than 300 items from ancient, Islamic, and contemporary Iran, including manuscripts, ceramics, carpets, textiles as well as photos, the museum said.
The exhibition is made up of 10 sections, including "The Persian Empire", spanning the Achaemenid period, "Change of Faith", which focuses on the role of Islam in Iranian culture, and "Literary Excellence" looking at Persian poetry.
Mehdi Hosseini Matin, Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran said, "Iran's epic" is introduced for five thousand years of Iranian culture, which is unprecedented in the last 90 years.
"It's only quite recently that people are recognizing that Iran has got this wonderful, rich artistic tradition, wonderful cultural heritage stretching back many, many, many years," co-curator John Curtis told Reuters.
Artifacts on show, either collected over time by the museum or on loan, include ancient relics such as the Cyrus Cylinder and Lion Rhyton as well as more contemporary items like Shirin Aliabadi's photograph of a woman blowing bubblegum.
"Obviously it's been a very difficult time to put together an exhibition ... it hasn't been possible to bring objects from Iran," Curtis said, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic and sanctions reimposed on Iran after former U.S. President Donald Trump exited a 2015 nuclear deal in 2018.
"We have had to source objects from other places and I think we've been very successful in doing that ... what you see here gives everybody a rounded picture of the great civilizations of Iran."
The exhibition will last until August 2021.
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