Finally, the cultural heritage authorities announced the registration of Mozafareddin Shah’s portrait panel in the documents of Golestan Palace in 1317, but how this work was removed from Golestan Palace remains a mystery.
According to Ilna, the story started with the publication of some pictures in cyberspace and the speech of two researchers and two employees of Golestan Palace. The news was about disappearance of the oil portrait of Mozafareddin Shah, located in the Brilliant Hall of Golestan Palace, which was sold at Christie’s auction. It was said that this painting left Golestan Palace in 1378, and after its picture was published in the Christie’s London auction catalog, it was sold on April 11, 2000, and is now among Al Sabah collection, in Kuwait.
Following the above news, comments started spreading. Afarin Emami, director of the Golestan Palace World Heritage Collection, said: “Since Golestan Palace has had bailiwick and all the works were handed over to a property trustee, there was no trace of this portrait of Mozafareddin Shah among the works listed in the bailiwick of Golestan Palaqce. In fact, we can say that from the very beginning when we witnessed the delivery of the works to the property trustee, such a work was not in the list of any of these property trustees and still is not. Of course, there are documents in the documents center of Golestan Palace that allow us to trace the works of the Pahlavi period. The officials of Golestan Palace are also trying to conduct the necessary investigations regarding this work, whether such a painting was on the property list of Pahlavi period or not.”
Emami also pointed out that based on the reviews of the published images, they found difference between the painting that is said to be sold at Christie’s and the painting seen in the picture of Brilliant Hall. The golden square shaped decorations that can be seen in the painting attributed to Christie’s are not seen in the picture of Brilliant Hall. Also, the oval frame seen in these images is different. Therefore, we can also conclude that the painting that is said to have been sold at Christie’s may have been a fake one or a painting other than this. However, these assumptions will not prevent us from investigating into the fate of this painting.
These speculations were raised based on Kamal al-Molk’s statements in the book Kamal Honar authored by Soheili Khansari. He only painted one painting of Mozafareddin Shah, which is the same portrait seen in the Brilliant Hall photos and was later sold at Christie’s auction.
However, the officials of Golestan Palace and the General Directorate of Museum Affairs of the country investigated the documents. Finally, in response to the follow-ups of the media and heritage lovers, and lack of proper response from the authorities, a week after publication of the controversial news about the unclear state of the painting, Morteza Adibzadeh, Director General of the national museums, wrote some points about this portrait on his Instagram page, on 1st of Amordad.
Adibzadeh stated: “To clarify the issue regarding the portrait of Mozafareddin Shah and to investigate how this work left the Golestan Palace and the subsequent sale at Christie’s London in 2000, I should inform that in recent days, a comprehensive investigation has been carried out on the Golestan Palace property records of the years 1312, 1317 and 1361, and based on this and as a result of these investigations, I consider it necessary to mention a few points: The first point, the name of the painting and its detailed specifications, including the dimensions (along with the frame), were recorded in the 1312 book, but registered as property of the so-called sleeping quarters of Nassereddin Shah, in the Brilliant Hall. The second point is that before 1312, the paintings of the Qajar kings were removed from the Berlian Hall and moved to the dormitory building.
The third point: In the year 1317, this list was re-recorded as part of the property transferred from the sleeping quarters to the Golestan Palace. Fourth point: There is not sign of the name of the mentioned painting in the records of 1361, which is related to the Ministry of Culture and Arts. The fifth point is that the painting definitely belonged to the Golestan Palace and was taken out of the palace complex between 1317 and 1361 and later smuggled out of the country and sold. Sixth point, Christie’s auction experts should have inquired about the status of this painting from Iran before holding the auction.
He continued: “7th point: What is important now is the illegal exit of this work: therefore based on our duty, and according to international law, the return of this work is on the agenda of the General Directorate.”
Although Adibzadeh’s statement described some aspects of the fate of Mozafareddin’s portrait, before him, Ahmad Dezvareie, head of the Golestan Palace museum, in the early years of the revolution, until 2006, told ILNA: “Based on the 2017 records, we had correspondence with Christie’s, and we returned the works that were recorded in these documents, and the letters are also available. If there was a painting that was recorded in the documents of 1317 and had left the country at the beginning of the revolution, we returned them with the letters written and such a painting of Mozafareddin Shah’s portrait, which is said to be in the Golestan Palace, was not found in these inquiries. All the files of the returned paintings, including the Safavid ones, are available in the documents of Golestan Palace. If such a work exists and its name is not recorded in the documents, that is a different matter. Since 1350, when I was working in Golestan Palace, there has been no such painting in the Brilliant Hall.
This question arises based on the third and fourth points that Adibzadeh refers to; in the 1317 records, this painting was recorded as part of the property transferred from the sleeping quarters to the Golestan Palace and in the 1361 books related to the Ministry of Culture and Art, there is no sign of the name of the mentioned painting. Is there a possibility that in the past few years there have been some procedures regarding removing the title of this panel from the Golestan palace records? Can it be true what the Director General of the National Museums says between the years 1317 and 1361, i.e., 50 years, for this work to be taken out of the Palace and later smuggled out of the country and sold; or the statement of the researchers that have always proved true so far, i.e., the painting of Mozafareddin Shah was taken out of the palace in 1378 and after publishing its photo in christie’s auction catalogue, it was sold at pounts 440,650 on 11 April 2000?
