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When western diplomats seek concessions from Iran, they typically dish out tough rhetoric and threaten sanctions. Neil MacGregor, the cherub-faced director of the British Museum, uses a more refined arsenal: cultural relics and priceless artifacts. In January, MacGregor traveled to Tehran to finalize the loan of treasures from eight of Iran's best museums. In exchange, he promised to loan the National Museum of Iran the Cyrus Cylinder, a 2,500-year-old clay cylinder inscribed with decrees from the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great. Following a request by the Iranian Vice President's office, he also vowed...
...time when more conventional channels of communication between Britain and Iran have stalled, MacGregor's cultural diplomacy is opening up another avenue for dialogue. The British Museum, especially since MacGregor took the helm in 2002, has used traveling exhibitions and curatorial exchanges to successfully engage museums from China to North Korea to Sudan. "The more difficult the political relations are, the more important it is to try to understand the history of the country with whom we're having difficult conversations," he says. (See pictures of 250 years of the British Museum...
...With "Shah 'Abbas: The Remaking of Iran" the British Museum seeks to break down the perception of Iran as a hostile state on the fringe - politically and culturally - of the modern world. The exhibition, which runs until June 14, brings together an astonishing collection of Persian artifacts, many of which have never been seen together inside Iran, let alone outside the country. The show highlights the accomplishments of Shah 'Abbas, who ruled Persia from 1587 to 1629, ushering in a golden age for arts and culture, and opening the country to European trade. Says MacGregor: "He created a multi-faith...
...That may be true, but officials at the British Museum speak from a privileged position. They don't answer to the government and can freely pursue a cultural agenda with any country. For Iran's curators, politics underscores every exchange, and sending relics abroad requires authorization from some of Iran's most powerful bureaucrats. That makes the Shah 'Abbas show all the more significant. "Iranians feel they are misunderstood, misrepresented and sometimes rather snubbed by the West," says Michael Axworthy, director of the Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies at the University of Exeter. "There are few things the Iranians...
...idea that's enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Last year, ahead of the Beijing Olympics when China faced renewed criticism over human rights, the British Museum staged exhibitions on the history of the Games in Shanghai and Hong Kong, sending more than 110 invaluable items, including the 2nd century marble statue The Discus Thrower, which the museum had never allowed overseas. And on Feb. 16, the directors of Beijing's Palace Museum and Taipei's National Palace Museum brokered a deal to send Chinese imperial artifacts to Taiwan for the first time in 60 years. In a show scheduled...