The Reza Abbasi Museum (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: موزه رضا عباسی ) is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. It is located in

Seyed Khandan Seyed Khandan is a locality of the city of Tehran in Iran. It is the junction of Shariati Street and Qasem Soleimani Expressway (formerly, Resalaupdat Highway), near the Resalat district. History

Years ago, there was a cheerful man name ...

. The museum is named after

Reza Abbasi Reza Abbasi (), also known as Aqa Reza ( – 1635), was the leading Persian miniature, Persian miniaturist of the Isfahan School during the later Safavid period, spending most of his career working for Shah Abbas I. He is considered to be the l ...

, one of the artists of the

Safavid era The Safavid dynasty (; , ) was one of Iran's most significant ruling dynasties reigning from 1501 to 1736. Their rule is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history, as well as one of the gunpowder empires. The Safavid Shah Ismai ...

. The Reza Abbasi Museum is home to a unique collection of

Persian art Persian art or Iranian art () has one of the richest art heritages in world history and has been strong in many media including architecture, painting, weaving, pottery, calligraphy, metalworking and sculpture. At different times, influences ...

dating back to the second millennium BC, from both the pre-Islamic and Islamic eras.

History

The museum was officially opened in September 1977 under the guidance of

Shahbanu ''Shahbanu'' (, ) was a title for empress regnant or empress consort in Persian and other Iranian languages. The title was specifically used by Farah Pahlavi, the wife of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran ( Persia). During Sas ...

Farah Pahlavi Farah Pahlavi (; []; born 14 October 1938) is the former Queen and last Empress () of Pahlavi Iran and is the third wife and widow of the last List of monarchs of Iran, Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. She was born into a prosperous Ira ...

,Pahlavi, Farah. ‘An Enduring Love: My Life with The Shah. A Memoir’ 2004 but was closed in November 1978. It was reopened a year later in 1979, with some changes in its internal decorations and further expansion of its exhibition space. It was closed again in 1984 due to internal difficulties and reopened a year later. It was finally opened for the fifth time, after its renovation on 4 February 2000. The museum is currently administrated by the

Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran The Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of Iran () is an educational and research institution overseeing numerous associated museum complexes throughout Iran. It is administered and funded by the Government of Iran. It was f ...

.Official Website
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Collections

The collections of the museum belong to a period from the 7th millennium BC to the early 20th century. The displays are arranged chronologically. Objects on display include artifacts made of baked clay, metal and stone from the pre historic times to pottery and metal objects, textile and lacquer painting, manuscripts and jewelry belonging to the Islamic period.

Library

The museum’s library possesses over 10,000 Persian, English, French and German books about Persian art, history, archaeology and classical paintings.

Publication department

The publication department has published many books regarding Iranian arts and collections.

Training courses

There are also different training courses in the museum such as

Drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

Calligraphy Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...

Watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

and

Oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

Burning of documents

In May 2015 various documents of the museum which were mostly communications with Shahbanu Farah Diba's office before the 1979

Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Im ...

were burned. The issue was revealed by

Mehr News Agency The Mehr News Agency (MNA; ) is a semi-official news agency sponsored by the government of Iran. It is headquartered in Tehran, and is owned by the Iranian government's Islamic Development Organization (IIDO). Mehr publishes all content on its we ...

in Tehran and created a lot of criticism in Persian-language media and social networks.

The collection of silver coins

Image:Vonones II Parthian silver coin.JPG, ''

Vonones II of Parthia Vonones II (died 51 AD) was a Parthian prince who ruled as king of Media Atropatene and briefly as king of the Parthian Empire. Vonones was not from the ruling branch of the Arsacid royal family. His father has been variously identified as bein ...

'' Image:Vologases IV Parthian silver coin.jpg, ''

Vologases V of Parthia Vologases V ( ''Walagash'') was King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 191 to 208. As king of Armenia (), he is known as Vologases II. Not much is known about his period of kingship of Armenia, except that he put his son Rev I () on the Iber ...

'' Image:Shapur II Sassanid silver coin.JPG, ''

Shapur II Shapur II ( , 309–379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth King of Kings (List of monarchs of the Sasanian Empire, Shahanshah) of Sasanian Iran. He took the title at birth and held it until his death at age 70, making him the List ...

'' Image:Shapur I Sassanid silver coin.JPG, ''

Shapur I Shapur I (also spelled Shabuhr I; ) was the second Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings of Iran. The precise dating of his reign is disputed, but it is generally agreed that he ruled from 240 to 270, with his father Ardashir I as co-regent u ...

'' Image:Ardashir I Papakan Sassanid silver coin.JPG, ''

Ardashir I Ardashir I (), also known as Ardashir the Unifier (180–242 AD), was the founder of the Sasanian Empire, the last empire of ancient Iran. He was also Ardashir V of the Kings of Persis, until he founded the new empire. After defeating the last Par ...

'' Image:Ardashir III Sassanid silver coin.JPG,

Ardashir III Ardashir III (; 62127 April 630) was the Sasanian King of Kings () of Iran from 6 September 628 to 27 April 630. Name ''Ardashir'' is the Middle Persian form of the Old Persian ''Ṛtaxšira'' (also spelled ''Artaxšaçā'', meaning "whose rei ...

Image:Bahram V Sassanid silver coin.JPG,

Bahram V Bahram V (also spelled Wahram V or Warahran V; ), also known as Bahram Gur (New Persian: , "Bahram the onager unter), was the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings (''shahanshah'') from 420 to 438. The son of the incumbent Sasanian shah Ya ...

Image:Hormizd IV Sassanid silver coin.JPG,

Hormizd IV Hormizd IV (also spelled Hormozd IV or Ohrmazd IV; ) was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 579 to 590. He was the son and successor of Khosrow I () and his mother was a Khazar princess. During his reign, Hormizd IV had the high aristoc ...

Image:Khosrow I Anushirvan Sassanid silver coin.JPG,

Khosrau I Khosrow I (also spelled Khosrau, Khusro or Chosroes; ), traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan ("the Immortal Soul"), was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 531 to 579. He was the son and successor of Kavad I (). Inheriting a rei ...

Image:Khosrow II Sassanid silver coin.JPG,

Khosrau II Khosrow II (spelled Chosroes II in classical sources; and ''Khosrau''), commonly known as Khosrow Parviz (New Persian: , "Khosrow the Victorious"), is considered to be the last great Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran, ruling from 590 ...

References

{{authority control Museums established in 1977 Museums in Tehran National museums of Iran Museums of the ancient Near East in Asia Art museums and galleries in Iran