TEHRAN -- A special exhibition featuring over 60 works by Pablo Picasso from various stages of his career will open in Tehran in early March.
According to the public relations office of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, the exhibition will include 26 aquatint pieces from the Tauromachia collection, or The Art of Bullfighting, which have never before been displayed in Iran.
The Tauromachia collection is a significant artistic portfolio consisting of 26 aquatint prints, created in an edition of 261, and is housed in major museums worldwide, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, MoMA.
The exhibition is being organized with the cooperation and approval of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts, as well as the Niavaran Palace Museum.
It is a collaborative effort between various Tehran museums and will be held in the galleries of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.
The museum, with the participation of art specialists, researchers, and documentary experts, is preparing this exhibition as part of its cultural programming for the upcoming Persian New Year celebrations.
For decades, masterpieces by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock have been kept in the basement of a museum in Iran’s capital Tehran.
It has been dubbed one of the world’s rarest treasure troves of art but few people outside its host country know about it.
According to estimates in 2018, the collection is worth as much as $3 billion.
Only a small portion of the work has been exhibited since 1979 but in recent years, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art has been showcasing some of its most captivating pieces.
The Eye to Eye exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in October 2024, was extended twice due to overwhelming public demand, running until January 2025.
The display was widely regarded as one of the most significant exhibitions in the history of the museum, and it also became its most visited.
The showcase featured more than 15 works unveiled for the first time, including a sculpture by Jean Dubuffet - marking its first-ever appearance in an Iranian exhibition.
From abstract expressionism to pop art, the collection at the museum serves as a time capsule of pivotal artistic movements.
The collection includes Henry’s Moore’s Reclining Figure series - an iconic piece by one of Britain’s most celebrated sculptors - and Jackson Pollock’s Mural on Indian Red Ground, a vibrant example of the American’s painting technique pulsing with energy and emotion.
Picasso’s The Painter and His Model - his largest canvas from 1927 - also features, a strong example of his abstract works from the post-cubism period.
And there is Van Gogh’s At Eternity’s Gate - one of the very rare survivals of his first printmaking campaign during which he produced six lithographs in November 1882.