TEHRAN/ SANTA BARBARA -- A 13th-century volume of Persian poetry, rare photographs of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and a Qajar-era family photo album have been donated—not to an Iranian archive or museum—but to the Special Research Collections of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). 
The gift, made by Farrokh Ashti Ashtiani, adds to a growing trend in which significant pieces of Iranian cultural memory are absorbed into Western academic institutions rather than returned to Iran for preservation in their rightful cultural context.
The materials, described by the university as “deeply personal and historically rich,” now form part of UCSB Library’s U.S. and International History, Politics, Civilization and Cultures Collection. But for many observers, their relocation is cause for concern, highlighting the ongoing dislocation of Iranian heritage from its origins.
“I initially explored museum donations,” Ashtiani told UCSB, “but while museums preserve materials well, access can be limited. Universities like UCSB offer broader access for global researchers.” His comments suggest that U.S. academic institutions are increasingly viewed as default custodians of non-Western history—a reality that raises ethical questions about cultural ownership, historical accountability, and the long-standing imbalance in the preservation and display of Middle Eastern artifacts in the West.
At the center of the donation is a hand-colored volume of poetry by Saadi Shirazi, one of Iran’s most revered classical poets. Printed during the reign of Nasseredin Shah Qajar, the book once belonged to Ashtiani’s grandfather, Nasrollah Ashtiani—a high-ranking Mostofian court official during the Qajar era. In an act of both care and cultural intimacy, he painted delicate watercolors into its pages under the dim light of oil lamps, infusing the manuscript with both familial and historical value. Now, that intimate expression of Iranian heritage will reside on shelves thousands of miles from its homeland.
The second piece of the donation is a photographic album documenting the Iranian Revolution. Ashtiani compiled it during a yearlong stay in Iran in 1978–79. Many of the images were published in the Dallas Times Herald, reflecting a Western appetite for visual narratives of Iranian upheaval—though the archive itself now finds permanence in California, not in Iran’s own repositories of revolutionary history.
The third artifact—a Qajar-era family photo album—contains some of the only known images of important figures and palaces, including what may be the sole surviving childhood photo of Ahmad Shah Qajar. This album survived decades of displacement and even the 2008 Tea Fire in Santa Barbara. Its return to Iran could have contributed significantly to national collections already working to preserve Qajar history. Instead, it joins a long list of Iranian archival materials scattered across private and institutional holdings in the West.
While UCSB and donor Ashtiani emphasize access and preservation as reasons for the transfer, the decision speaks to deeper issues: U.S. institutions continue to benefit from and build prestige through the possession of materials from nations affected by war, sanctions, and displacement—nations whose own cultural infrastructure is often undermined by the same geopolitical dynamics.
Iran, with its extensive network of museums, libraries, and archival institutions—including the National Library and Archives of Iran and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tehran—has both the expertise and the historical mandate to serve as guardian of its own heritage. Critics argue that such items, particularly those of royal lineage and national significance, belong in Iranian collections—not in American ones.
“The collection makes three valuable and unique historical resources available for research and teaching at UCSB,” said Yolanda Blue, curator of the receiving collection. But whose history, and for whose benefit, remains a pressing question.