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Germany says had to cancel show of Iran shah’s art trove

German cultural officials said Tuesday they had to cancel a planned Berlin exhibition of an Iranian treasure trove of Western modern art after Tehran refused to provide an export permit.

Published: 27 December 2016 16:32 CET
Germany says had to cancel show of Iran shah's art trove
Photo: DPA

The show of paintings collected by the wife of Iran's late shah, featuring masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Andy Warhol, had been billed as a symbol of a diplomatic thaw since Iran's nuclear deal with western powers.

But controversy flared after the Tehran museum chief this year handed out an award for a Holocaust cartoon, and the loan project was reportedly further complicated by fears in the Islamic republic about legal claims if the pictures travel abroad.

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK), which manages Berlin's main museums, said Iran's refusal to issue the necessary paperwork forced it to cancel the exhibition that had been agreed with the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

Foundation president Hermann Parzinger said the decision had been taken “with great regret” because “Iran has still not granted an export license for the artworks”.

The exhibition, originally planned to have opened with some 60 loaned artworks in Berlin in early December, could not be delayed any longer, he said in a statement.

“However, the SPK remains committed to cultural exchange, including with Iran, and will continue to promote this dialogue with the appropriate measures,” he said.

In Iran, the management of the Tehran museum was not immediately available for comment, staff told AFP.

The Tehran collection, reputed to be the greatest lineup of modern masterpieces outside of Europe and the United States, also includes major works by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Francis Bacon.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the works assembled under the patronage of his wife Farah Pahlavi have not been shown together outside Iran, according to the SPK.

Recalling the Iran nuclear deal, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had earlier hailed the exhibition project as a sign of Iran's “cultural and social opening up”.

The agreement was marred, however, in May when the Tehran museum director Majid Mollanoroozi handed out an award for an antisemitic cartoon about the Holocaust, sparking protests from Israel and Germany.

The Economist magazine has also reported that “influential voices” in Iran's art world have warned that there might be legal claims against the collection and that it risked being seized.

 

ART

African-born director’s new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

One of the rare African-born figures to head a German cultural institution, Bonaventure Ndikung is aiming to highlight post-colonial multiculturalism at a Berlin arts centre with its roots in Western hegemony.

Published: 8 July 2023 10:13 CEST
African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

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