MNA� Following a letter by German FM to Iran�s Zarif guaranteeing the safety of the treasured collections of Tehran�s Museum of Contemporary Arts, conditions are now ripe for touring the treasury in Berlin.


On Nov. 4, Iranian deputy Minister of Culture for Art Affairs Ali Moradkhani discussed with reporters the signing of agreements with Germany and Italy for touring the treasured collections of Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts (TMoCA), including 30 world masterpieces and 30 Iranian artworks, in these two European countries.

Under the agreement, Berlin and Rome will grant the money received from selling tickets to Iran for spending it on improving the condition of the TMoCA.

While some Iranian officials had some reservations about sending the treasury overseas due to safety concerns, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a letter addressed to his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif guaranteed the safety of the Iranian arts collection while being on display in Berlin Museum.

�I am deeply pleased to see that the exhibition will provide an opportunity to present a new image of Iranian culture to our people,� Steinmeier noted in the letter. �Thus, I hope that the Iranian side will soon make the necessary preparations for making this exhibition possible.�

Moradkhani had stressed on Friday that the exhibition will be one of the most important events of the last 50 years in Europe because they are about to see artworks a very few of which had been seen in 45 years.

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts is home to an impressive collection of artworks by highly-acclaimed Iranian artists including Manoucher Yektai, Sohrab Sepehri, Mansour Ghandriz, Faramarz Pilaram and Nasser Assar as well as western artists including Andy Warhol, Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock, Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon, Pablo Picasso and Mark Rothko, among others.