Sep 6, 2016

Members of Iran’s diaspora community tell the tale of Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali mounting a bulldozer in 1979 and attempting to destroy Persepolis. The story represents the Islamic Revolution as having brought to an end a renaissance in the preservation and appreciation of Iran’s cultural heritage. It is undeniable, however, that today there is a political will in Iran for it to emerge stronger in the field of cultural heritage protection.

Obsessed with stressing the Indo-Aryan lineage of Iranian culture as opposed to its Semitic heritage, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi longed for Iran to be accepted on the world stage as a bridge between ancient Vedic cultures and the Greco-Roman civilizations of Europe. His efforts helped to facilitate an unprecedented rise in the unearthing and study of Iran’s ancient history. From 1958 to 1978, more archaeological excavations and fieldwork took place in Iran — much of it involving foreign-led expeditions — than had taken place in the previous 70 years.

Iran’s record on cultural heritage preservation before and after the revolution stands as a testament to why the diaspora’s narrative of heritage protection in Iran is incorrect. The period of intense fieldwork when the United States and Europe competed over excavation of Iran’s ancient history is characterized by critics as one of plunder. Today, embroiled in countless repatriation cases, Iran seeks for its cultural property — some of which was auctioned by the world’s leading dealers or is on display in prestigious museums — to be returned.

Although the shah took care to preserve the heritage that he believed anchored his regime to the pomp and grandeur of an ancient tradition of leadership dating back to Cyrus the Great — the kind, he believed, on display in Persepolis — other forms of heritage were damaged and destroyed through the course of urban development and redevelopment. As one expert has argued, Iran’s primary legislative basis for protecting its cultural property, the 1930 Antiquities Law, was not designed to accommodate cultural property protection in an age of rapid urbanization or rampant natural resource extraction, both of which involve digging that can damage heritage objects. This legal framework for heritage protection also remains ill-equipped to deal with threats posed by Iran’s high level of pollution.

The Islamic Republic established the Organization for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at the outset of the revolution, allocating it an annual budget of around $60 million. Heritage protection remained a state-funded priority even as the country’s war with Iraq escalated in the 1980s. Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) was established in 1985. Both organizations faced the insurmountable task of protecting heritage during one of the 20th century’s bloodiest conflicts.