An illicitly ancient sculpture carved out of a rock relief in Iran will soon be on display at the British Museum before being repatriated to the National Museum in Tehran.
Carved from limestone limestone, the sculpture depicts a standing male figure wearing an ornamental headdress. According to Guardian.
“It belongs to a period when Iran was the center of a mighty empire stretching from Syria to the Caucasus and Central Asia, and with its capital at Ctesiphon, south of present-day Baghdad,” said said St. John Simpson, archaeologist and senior curator. the British Museum’s Middle East department, told the newspaper. “The Sassanids were powerful rivals to Rome and are famous today for their fine silverware and cut glass.”
The relief was seized at Stansted Airport outside London, where border officials removed the item because of its suspicious packaging – a sloppy unpadded crate held together by nails. Inside was the sculpture, which had recently been excised with an angle grinder.
“We almost never come across a case where something was cut out of ‘living rock,'” Simpson said. “It’s a level of brutality that surpasses everything.”
The sculpture’s exact origin remains a mystery, though contextual clues may help narrow down the list of potential locations. Only about 30 Sasanian rock landforms are known today, and nearly all of them came from the small province of Fars in southwestern Iran.
Simpson suspects he “comes from somewhere in the Shiraz region” of the province. “Stylistically, it resembles the one known in the region,” he explained. “I think it’s probably part of a big streak. There could be more pieces there.
The subject of the piece is also difficult to determine. “The lack of inscription makes it impossible to identify the person depicted, but his robe and tiara headdress designate him as a person of high rank,” the curator said. “His gesture of greeting and submission, with a raised bent index finger, is a feature of Sasanian art when figures are in the presence of royalty, suggesting that it was part of a larger composition, with the king on the right and maybe other characters behind.”
Interpol and the National Crime Agency have both investigated the object, but no arrests have yet been made. A UK internet auction site was listed as the parcel’s destination address, but the company said it was not expected.
Due to its poor padding, the relief broke into two pieces during transport. The Conservatives have since reconstituted it.
“The British Museum is committed to helping preserve cultural heritage in the UK and around the world, by partnering with law enforcement to identify illicitly trafficked antiquities,” reads a press release from the museum. “Items seized in this manner are brought to the British Museum for identification and cataloguing.”
The London institution has obtained permission from the Iranian government to exhibit the sculpture for three months. After this time, it will be repatriated to the National Museum of Tehran.
Simpson called the newly repaired piece “incredibly attractive”, before weighing in on its potential value.
“The valuation could be anything, really. We’re talking £20-30m and up,” he said. “There’s never been anything like this on the market.”
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