National Museum of Iran

History

For the first time, the proposal to create a place called "Museum" was made by Morteza Gholi Khan Hedayat in 1906. He was thinking of creating a museum and an office called the Department of Antiquities to organize commercial explorations, but he did not achieve this goal. The first museum was established in 1916 under the name of "National Museum" or "Museum of Education" in one of the rooms of the Ministry of Education, which was located on the north side of the Dar al-Fonun school building. This museum had 270 bronze artefacts (pottery, glass, coins, old weapons, seals, wooden objects, patches, books and textiles) which were collected by the employees of the Antiquities Department or donated by the people. In 1925, the objects of this museum were moved to the Mirorr Hall at Masoudieh Mansion.

With the start of excavations by European archaeologists, especially the French archaeological team headed by Jacques de Morgan in Susa (1897), the people's attention was drawn to the importance of cultural heritage. In 1927, the unconditional privilege of the French archaeologists in Iran was canceled. They were allowed to dig only in Susa. Since Iran had decided to establish a national museum and library, the privilege of designing and implementing it was given to France. For this purpose, French architect Andre Godard came to Iran in 1929 to establish a museum and library and officially started his work.

The brick building of the Museum of Ancient Iran was designed by André Godard and Maxime Siroux in the early 20th century, and was influenced by Sassanid vaults, particularly the Taq Kasra at Ctesiphon. Its construction, with an area of about 11000 m2, began in 1935 and was completed within two years by Abbas Ali Memar and Morad Tabrizi. It was then officially inaugurated in 1937.

The Museum of the Islamic Era was later built with white travertine on the grassy grounds of the Museum of Ancient Iran, and was still being remodeled when the Iranian Revolution swept the country.

While the Museum of Ancient Iran always had a clear mandate to show archaeological relics, as well as some rare medieval textiles and rug pieces, the newer complex also featured Amlash pottery from prehistoric Caspian Sea regions of Iran. The Museum of the Islamic Era exhibits over 1,500 works from Ilkanids, Seljuks, Timurids, Safavids, Qajars and more. The complex consists of three floors, and it contains various pieces of pottery, textiles, texts, artworks, astrolabes, and adobe calligraphy, from Iran's post-classical era.

The oldest artifacts kept at the Ancient Iran Museum are from Kashafrud, Darband, and Shiwatoo, which date back to the Lower Paleolithic period. Mousterian stone tools made by Neanderthals are on display at the first hall of the Museum of Ancient Iran. The most important Upper Paleolithic tools are from Yafteh, dating back about 30,000 to 35,000 years. The Museum of Ancient Iran consists of two floors. Its halls contain artifacts and fossils from the Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic, as well as the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, early and late Bronze Age, and Iron Ages I-III, through the Elamite, Median, Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, and Sassanian eras.

Exhibitions

The National Museum of Iran and the British Museum held a major exhibition. It was held in collaboration with the Iranian government, which loaned the British Museum a number of iconic artefacts in exchange for an undertaking that the Cyrus Cylinder would be loaned to the National Museum of Iran in return. The Cylinder was displayed in September 2010 for a four-month period. The exhibition was very popular, attracting 48,000 people within the first ten days and about 500,000 people by the time it closed in January 2011.

To celebrate its 80th anniversary in 2018, the museum hosted 50 masterpieces from the Louvre and the Musée national Eugène Delacroix. The exhibition attracted over 250,000 visitors. An ancient Sassanid relief (224–651 AD), illegally smuggled to the United Arab Emirates during the 1980s, and left there in 2006, was later seized in the United Kingdom in 2016. Its value at an auction could exceed £30 million. The Iranian government was tracking the long-missing relief for years. In 2023, The Guardian reported that the relief had been discovered and confiscated at Stansted Airport in Essex. The British Museum received permission from Iran to display the relief for a short period of time, and then returned it home. After 35 years, on 28 June 2023, the Sassanid relief returned and a well-received exhibition was held at the National Museum of Iran. It is now permanently displayed at the Museum.

After 85 years, the Achaemenid tablets, which were loaned to the University of Chicago for study in 1930s, returned home. The 4,000 tablest were discovered in Persepolis and lent to the United States for a three-year study period. They were repatriated on the plane that also brought home the Iranian delegation from New York, after it attended the United Nations General Assembly. The tablets are among the most important works of Iranian history, and contain vital insights into road resource management, social relations, basic necessities of life, wages, and the economy of Achaemenid society from the time of Darius the Great (522–486 BC).

Another successful exhibitions was the “Silk Legacy” in 2025, which celebrated the millennia-old cultural ties between Iran and China. Other exhibitions are held continuously and annually at the museum. The museum has also held several highly successful exhibitions abroad. "The Glory of Ancient Persia" was held throughout China for 15 months in 2024. Over 200 artifacts went on display in Beijing (Forbidden City), Shanghai and Xinjiang, which attracted more than 50 million visitors and became the biggest abroad exhibition in the museum's history. Being home to one of the world's four remaining statues of Homer's Penelope, the museum showcased the statue alongside its three sisters at Prada Foundation in Milan in a 4-months-long event by Iran and Italy. All the four statues later went on display again in 2016, this time at the National Museum of Iran. Other exhibitions abroad were held in Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Departments

Management

Gallery

File:Chopper, Kashafrud, Iran, Lower Paleolithic, National Museum of Iran.jpg|Chopper from the Lower Paleolithic, found at Kashafrud. File:Biface (trihedral) Amar Merdeg, Mehran, Ilam, Lower Paleolithic, National Museum of Iran.jpg|Trihedral from the Lower Paleolithic, found at Amar Merdeg. File:Boar, clay figurine, Neolithic Period, Sarab, National museum of Iran.jpg|Clay boar figurine from the Neolithic period, found at Tepe Sarab. File:Clay human figurine (Fertility goddess) Tappeh Sarab, Kermanshah ca. 7000-6100 BCE Neolithic period, National Museum of Iran.jpg|A clay figurine of a fertility goddess found at Tepe Sarab, dating back to the Neolithic. File:Marlik cup iran.jpg|Iron-Age gold cup from Marlik. File:Marlik, Iron Age, Gilan, National Museum of Iran.jpg|Iron-Age animal statue from Marlik. File:National Museum of Iran Darafsh (64).JPG|Pottery from Shahr-e Sukhteh, the world's first known animation. File:Chlorite object Jiroft, Kerman ca. 2500 BCE, Bronze Age I, National Museum of Iran.jpg|A chlorite object with the Master of Animals motif related to the Jiroft culture, dating back to Bronze Age I, from Kerman File:Ring arjan.jpg|Ring of Power, Elamite period File:Bull with elamite inscription - Late 2nd millen BC - National museum of Iran - inventory number 3213.JPG|The guardian bull of Chogha Zanbil File:National Meusem Darafsh 6 (45).JPG|Statue of Darius the Great. File:Double Bull Column Capital from the Apadana in Persepolis – National Museum of Iran.jpg|Column from Persepolis File:Persepolis - statue of a mastiff.jpg|Achaemenid mastiff statue. File:National Museum of Iran (21010846175).jpg|Statue of Empress Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus the Great, wife of Darius the Great, and mother of Xerxes the Great. File:Achaemenid plaque from Persepolis.JPG|An Achaemenid plaque, the only remaining item with the symbol of the Empire's flag. File:Corner of the Apadana Darius the Great inscription.jpg|Tablets of Darius the Great, discovered at Persepolis, are housed at the museum with their original stone box. File:Cuneiform Inscription - National Museum of Iran, Tehran.jpg|Tablet of Xerxes the Great File:The Treasury Reliefs (Best Viewed in "Original" Size) (4734172156).jpg|The central wall of the northern stairs of Apadana Palace from Persepolis. File:Achaemenid gold rhyton in the shape of a lion, from Ecbatana, ca. 550-330 BC, Exhibition- 'Iran, Cradle of Civilizations', Archaeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ), Spain - 48244034452.jpg|Achaemenid royal rhyton made of gold in the shape of a lion, from Ecbatana. File:Achamanid-Woman-Statue-Persia-Persepolis.jpg|One of the world's four remaining statues of Penelope was discovered in Persepolis. The other three are kept at Vatican Museum and Capitoline Museum in Rome. File:National Meusem Darafsh 6 (59).JPG|The Shami Statue. File:31756-Tehran (8012466233).jpg|The Saltmen. File:National Museum of Iran Darafsh (1176).JPG|Statue of Thermusa. File:Sassanid nobleman, Hajiabad, Fars, Iran, National Museum of Iran.jpg|Statue of a Sassanid nobleman File:Silver plate with Sasanian noble hunting lions, from Sari, 4th century AD, National Museum of Iran, Tehran, Iran.jpg|Royal silver plate with Sassanid king Shapur II hunting lions. File:Plate of Khosrow I Anushirvan.jpg|Royal plate of Sassanid king Khosrow I File:Sasanian gilded silver vessel, National Museum of Iran, Tehran, Iran.jpg|Royal Sassanid gilded silver vessel File:Islamic Era Museum of Iran 2020-03-26 08.jpg|Early Islamic plasterwork File:Islamic Era Museum of Iran 2020-03-26 15.jpg|Early Islamic tiling File:Seljuq gallery, Museum of Islamic Art and Archaeology of Iran.jpg|Part of the Seljuk gallery, which displays a Mihrab, plasterworks, and vessels. File:Wooden Window, 520 AH, Museum of the Islamic Era.jpg|Wooden window, 1126 AD File:Paradise Gate-a Golden Tile Mihrab-Ilkhanate era.jpg|Paradise Gate, Mihrab from Ilkhanate Empire. File:Depiction of Muhammad by Sani ol Molk.jpg|Depiction of Muhammad, Qajar era File:Khalyan iran national museum.jpg|A Qajar-era hookah. File:Portrait by Sani al-Molk, Islamic Art Museum, Tehran (4) (45146685815 001).jpg|A 19th-century watercolor painting, Qajar era

References

References

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