Basel hosts monumental Persian art exhibition
A Basel museum is exhibiting 180 masterpieces spanning seven thousand years of Persian art from the collections of the Iranian National Museum in Teheran.
It's the first time since the 1979 Iranian Revolution that Persian art treasures have been seen abroad.
Some of the exhibits have never before been presented to the public.
The exhibition at Basel's Museum of Ancient Art gives a breathtaking panoramic overview of 7,000 years of civilisation.
Selected archaeological finds illustrate the most important phases of development of this ancient culture.
For example the oldest objects - two earthenware figures dating from the 7th and 6th centuries BC - mark the so-called Neolithic revolution, a historical turning-point when Stone Age hunters began farming and stock-breeding over large areas of the Middle East.
Empire
Other highlights include the gold and silver vessels of the Archamenisch great kings (558-330 BC). These rulers of the first empire in history amassed huge wealth in their palaces in Susa and Persepolis.
As the exhibition shows, Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia (336-323 BC) and the Selucid kings who succeeded him saw the beginning of increasing Greek influence in Iranian artistic production.
Basel curator Ella van der Meijden told swissinfo that many of the objects were excavated in the 1960s and 1970s, some by foreign archaeological missions.
"This is an enormous region," she said. "The objects are from the Central Iranian plateau, the plains and deserts as well as the fertile valleys near the Caspian Sea.
"[Ancient Persia] was a connecting area between civilisations from Mesopotamia, the Indus valley and Central Asia which became rich because of the trade in precious stones. That's why several cultures developed independently of each other already in prehistoric times."
The exhibition, which is on a European tour, also includes aerial photographs of the main archaeological sites in Iran, taken by Swiss photographer Georg Gerster.
"Seven thousand years of Persian art" is in Basel until June 29.
swissinfo, Richard Dawson
Key facts
The 180 Persian art objects from the National Museum in Teheran are the first to be exhibited abroad since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Spanning 7,000 years, the exhibition illustrates the most important phases of development in an ancient and huge cultural region.
Ancient Persia was a connecting area between civilisations from Mesopotamia, the Indus valley and Central Asia which became rich because of the trade in precious stones.
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