You know how when you’re cleaning out your closet or investigating a crime scene or high on Peyote you just seem to find things? An ex-lover’s missing earring. An in-the-process-of-dissolving fish oil pill. Both those things stuck together. Sometimes though, you find something of true value — you know, like 10 Picassos — just chilling in the basement. At least that’s what happened at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art made an effort to create a digital catalog of their collection and stumbled into an additional 10 Picassos found in storage. The works haven’t been seen since the Islamic revolution of 1979.
This must be some kind of art collector’s fever dream. I never find anything of real value when I’m cleaning out my storage, but you know, I’m not an art museum. Just this last week I found a Gameboy Pocket and Pokemon Blue from my childhood. Not having kids, or knowing kids, or liking kids, or being sentimental about a game that glorifies cock-fighting, I sold it on eBay for $20. If I made an exhibit of all the things I find around my house it would be of weed containers, a jump rope, some batteries, a pairless sock, and a pill capsule of unknown substance or origin.
According to Art Newspaper, Dutch architect and curator Mattijs Visser who was tasked with the digital archiving is now curating an exhibition based on other findings in TMOCA’s storage to be called ‘Portrait, Still-Life, Landscape’ running from February 21st-April 2019. The exhibition will feature hundreds of modern Western compositions alongside contemporary Iranian artworks in what is sure to be a visually stunning mix of different styles and cultures.
Unfortunately, the exhibition won’t be traveling so if you want to see some missing Picassos as well as what is sure to be an impressive collection of Western and Iranian art you’ll have to make your way to Tehran early next year. Get to planning now, as the visa application process is extensive and solo travel is restricted for Americans.
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