Picasso masterpieces go on display for the first time in Iran after decades hidden away in a vault

Inaugurated in 1977 by Farah Pahlavi, Iran’s former queen, the museum was a “pioneer in the region” in collecting modern and contemporary art from Europe and America, according to Sussan Babaie, a professor of Islamic and Iranian arts at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

“That collection was enormously important in bringing attention to the then-vibrant art scene in Tehran,” she told NBC News in an email Thursday.

The museum’s collection included paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and sculptures by the likes of van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Degas and Dali, housed “in a purpose-built modernist structure,” she added.

But after the monarchy was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini became the country’s supreme leader, many of TMoCA’s works were locked away as clerics deemed them inappropriate, citing nudity and other sensitive themes.

The museum has slowly reclaimed its place in Iran’s cultural life, and in 2012, it put on a first-of-its-kind show featuring works by pop artists Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein, among others.

Last year, TMoCA put on the highly successful “Eye to Eye” exhibition, extended twice due to public demand, where it showcased long-hidden works by Western artists from its collection, which was valued at somewhere between $3 billion to $4 billion in 2021 by the museum’s architect and former director, Kamran Diba.

Citing a single Jackson Pollock piece that is estimated to be worth around $600 million to $700 million, Nouferasti, TMoCA’s public relations director, said it was “difficult to put a price on it.”

“The significance of this collection goes beyond numbers,” he added.

For Americans, the new Picasso exhibition will remain out of reach. In addition to long-standing restrictions, the State Department issued a travel advisory in August warning citizens not to travel to Iran due to political unrest in the region.

But in Iran, where there are strict laws regarding women’s dress, including the mandatory hijab, and restrictions on music and public gatherings, the exhibition at TMoCA “offers another perspective on Iranian society and culture, one rarely highlighted outside Iran,” according to Hamid Keshmirshekan, an art historian at London’s SOAS University.

He said it exhibited “the energy and vibrancy of the country’s contemporary cultural scene,” while underlining “the younger generation’s determination to participate in global cultural dialogues, despite the significant challenges they face culturally, intellectually and economically.”

Amin Khodadadi reported from Tehran, and Astha Rajvanshi from London.