Chicago's Persian heritage crisis
Encyclopedia
Chicago's Persian heritage crisis (بحران آثار باستانی ایرانی دانشگاه شیکاگو in Persian
) refers to a threat to seize invaluable Persian antiquities
kept at the University of Chicago
by the United States federal courts
and also a threat to numerous other Persian antiquities kept in the Field Museum
in Chicago. It has been seen by Iranians as a perceived example for the hostility of United States federal court system toward Iranian people and Persian heritage.
(a suicide bombing in Ben Yehuda mall in Jerusalem) won $71 million in a judgment in a U.S. court against Iran for being a "state sponsor of terrorism". Hamas
had claimed responsibility for the attack, so some American visitors filed the federal lawsuit against Iran and Iranian officials, claiming that Hamas was financed by Iran, making the country legally responsible for their suffering. The case is formally called Jenny Rubin, et al. vs. the Islamic Republic of Iran, et al.
After Iran ignored the judgment, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina
issued a default judgment
for the plaintiffs, awarding them $423.5 million in damages., including $300 million in punitive damages
.
After the verdict, the question was how to collect. The former monarchy of Iran had billions of dollars in assets within the United States that were frozen after the 1979 Iranian Revolution
. However in order to secure an end to the Iranian Hostage Crisis, the assets were unfrozen and most if not all of it, was collected by 1982 due to the Iran-Iraq War
. Rhode Island attorney David J. Strachman
, along with other attorneys, representing the plaintiffs, found that the late Shah had purchased a home in Lubbock, Texas
for his son, which was sold for $400,000;. After that, they attempted to go after assets of Iranians who had previously worked for the former monarchy, but the U.S. courts would overturn all their attempts to seize their assets, as they were not found to be liable for the damages. They then went after Iranian-owned objects held by U.S. museums in Illinois, Massachusetts and Michigan. The Oriental Institute and its holdings from Persepolis became a primary target. Strachman said collectors are interested in the antiquities, potentially for tens of millions of dollars.
The university had argued sovereign immunity
, i.e, under federal law, "certain property owned by foreign governments is protected from court judgments." The university was arguing that on Iran's behalf, saying that "the Iranians were gun-shy because of bad experiences with the American legal system." The victims characterized the university and other institutions as defending Iran.
ruled that only Iran, which has not acknowledged the suit, can claim its own rights. Manning said that the university's "brazen accusation that the courts of the United States are hostile to Iran and that, as a result, Iran should be excused from bothering to assert its rights, is wholly unsupported."
The university however, in light of the new ruling, has argued that seizing the tablets would frighten foreign museums away from loans to U.S. institutions, and that U.S.-owned objects overseas might also be seized.
) clay tablets were loaned to the University of Chicago
in 1937. They were discovered by archaeologists in 1933 and are legally the property of the National Museum of Iran
and the Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization. The artifacts came with the understanding that they would be returned to Iran. The tablets, from Persepolis
, the capital of the Persian Empire, date to about 500 B.C.
The tablets give a view of daily life, with things like daily rations of barley that were given to workers in nearby regions of the empire. These tablets were sent to the capital to keep track of how they were paying workers. Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, said that details largely concern food for people on diplomatic or military missions. Each tablet is about half the size of a deck of Playing card
s and has characters of a dialect of Elamite, an extinct language
understood by perhaps a dozen scholars in the world.
Stein called it "the first chance to hear the Persians speaking of their own empire." Charles Jones, Research Associate and Librarian at the Oriental Institute and tablet expert compared them to "credit card receipts." Most of our current knowledge about the ancient Persian empire comes from the accounts of others, most famously the Greek storyteller Herodotus
. Stein added, "It's valuable because it's a group of tablets, thousands of them from the same archive. It's like the same filing cabinet. They're very, very valuable scientifically."
The university's Oriental Institute had been returning them to Iran in small batches. The Institute had already returned 37,000 tablets and fragments to Iran and were preparing another shipment when Strachman intervened.
is however different. It faces a similar lawsuit, but argues that its Persian collection was bought on the open market and is not owned by Iran
.
"Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property", transfer of ownership of any and all Persian antiques is illegal. On July 10, 2006, UNESCO
Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said the U.S. court decision was "illegal."
As in several other cases involving U.S. citizens and foreign nations, the United States Department of Justice
argued that national interest
is better served if such disputes are resolved through diplomatic negotiations rather than legal suit. Poking fun at the United States government, Manning wrote that "[t]he government relegates the [key] argument to a footnote."
, Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs
, warned that "if the US denies Iran's right to its properties and assets to satisfy judgments by some of its court, Tehran will reciprocate the action." Other officials expressed outrage, too, saying they will appeal to the International Court of Justice, UNESCO, and other international bodies.
Iranian Foreign Minister said "one of Americans' usual propaganda ploys is raising claims at the US courts based on the country's civil laws, which is contrary to the international law." He said that Iran had adopted a similar law in 1999. This has resulted in complaints against the United States for such things as its role in Operation Ajax
and the Iran–Iraq War. So far, three billion dollars in penalties have been issued against the US government. Mottaki says that Iran would follow up the case with UNESCO.
In September 2006 former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami
met with Oriental Institute director Gil Stein and U. of C. provost Richard Saller to discuss the future of the tablets. Iran has characterized the situation as a U.S.-engineered heist. Khatami argued that the tablets "do not belong to governments but to the Iranian nation and the world".
Iranian embassies around the world condemned the ruling, which they say violates international norms and regulations. The Iranian embassy in Thailand
strongly criticized a US federal court order to auction more than 30,000 clay tablets obtained during excavations in the Persepolis in 1935 and placed in the University of Chicago's museum on loan. The embassy's statement reads: "The tablets were transferred to the US and delivered to the institute as part of the cultural heritage of the Iranian people."
Apart from Iranian government, several American NGOs including The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and the Iranian American Bar Association (IABA) made attempts to protect the items.
About 3,000 Iranians living outside the country have signed a petition calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to step in to reverse the ruling. They argue that the Iranian people should not be punished for "whatever the Islamic regime of Iran is doing in the international arena."
Gil Stein
, director of the Oriental Institute
at the University of Chicago said, "The Iranians are understandably furious about this. You'd have to imagine how we would feel if we loaned the Liberty Bell
to Russia
and a Russian court put it up for auction."
In response to Iran's reaction, Strachman said that Iranian commentators had been going into "crazy conspiracy theories", including calling it a Zionist conspiracy." Strachman did not comment on the fact that Farah Pahlavi
, former empress of Iran who is not tied to the current government of Iran, has also voiced her strong objection to Strachman's efforts to seize the tablets.
In early July 2006, following the decision, Iran sent Washington lawyer Thomas Corcoran
to Chicago after years of refusing to participate in either the original terrorism case or the Chicago artifacts litigation, to assert Iran's immunities. Patty Gerstenblith, a cultural property law specialist at DePaul University
, said that Corcoran's appearance changes matters greatly, as the crux of the judge's ruling was that Iran had to assert sovereign immunity itself. "It changes things pretty dramatically. If foreign sovereign immunity can be asserted, the case should be more or less resolved," she said.
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
) refers to a threat to seize invaluable Persian antiquities
Persepolis Fortification Archive
The Persepolis Fortification Archive and Persepolis Treasury Archive are two groups of clay administrative archives — sets of records physically stored together - found in Persepolis dating to the Persian Achaemenid Empire...
kept at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
by the United States federal courts
United States federal courts
The United States federal courts make up the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government.-Categories:...
and also a threat to numerous other Persian antiquities kept in the Field Museum
Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...
in Chicago. It has been seen by Iranians as a perceived example for the hostility of United States federal court system toward Iranian people and Persian heritage.
Background
In 2003, a group of victims of a September 4, 1997 explosion in IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
(a suicide bombing in Ben Yehuda mall in Jerusalem) won $71 million in a judgment in a U.S. court against Iran for being a "state sponsor of terrorism". Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
had claimed responsibility for the attack, so some American visitors filed the federal lawsuit against Iran and Iranian officials, claiming that Hamas was financed by Iran, making the country legally responsible for their suffering. The case is formally called Jenny Rubin, et al. vs. the Islamic Republic of Iran, et al.
After Iran ignored the judgment, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina
Ricardo M. Urbina
Ricardo M. Urbina is a United States District Court judge in Washington, DC. He has taken senior status.Urbina earned a B.A. from Georgetown University in 1967. He received his law degree from the Law Center at Georgetown University in 1970. He began his legal career as a public defender. He...
issued a default judgment
Default judgment
Default judgment is a binding judgment in favor of either party based on some failure to take action by the other party. Most often, it is a judgment in favor of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to appear before a court of law...
for the plaintiffs, awarding them $423.5 million in damages., including $300 million in punitive damages
Punitive damages
Punitive damages or exemplary damages are damages intended to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit...
.
After the verdict, the question was how to collect. The former monarchy of Iran had billions of dollars in assets within the United States that were frozen after the 1979 Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
. However in order to secure an end to the Iranian Hostage Crisis, the assets were unfrozen and most if not all of it, was collected by 1982 due to the Iran-Iraq War
Iran-Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the twentieth century...
. Rhode Island attorney David J. Strachman
David J. Strachman
David J. Strachman is a Providence, Rhode Island attorney noted for his representation of terror victims in civil suits against terror entities including the PLO, Palestinian Authority, Hamas and the Islamic Republic of Iran...
, along with other attorneys, representing the plaintiffs, found that the late Shah had purchased a home in Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
for his son, which was sold for $400,000;. After that, they attempted to go after assets of Iranians who had previously worked for the former monarchy, but the U.S. courts would overturn all their attempts to seize their assets, as they were not found to be liable for the damages. They then went after Iranian-owned objects held by U.S. museums in Illinois, Massachusetts and Michigan. The Oriental Institute and its holdings from Persepolis became a primary target. Strachman said collectors are interested in the antiquities, potentially for tens of millions of dollars.
The university had argued sovereign immunity
Sovereign immunity
Sovereign immunity, or crown immunity, is a legal doctrine by which the sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution....
, i.e, under federal law, "certain property owned by foreign governments is protected from court judgments." The university was arguing that on Iran's behalf, saying that "the Iranians were gun-shy because of bad experiences with the American legal system." The victims characterized the university and other institutions as defending Iran.
Ruling
In June 2006, U.S. District Court Judge Blanche M. ManningBlanche M. Manning
Blanche M. Manning is a United States District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois.-Early life and education:...
ruled that only Iran, which has not acknowledged the suit, can claim its own rights. Manning said that the university's "brazen accusation that the courts of the United States are hostile to Iran and that, as a result, Iran should be excused from bothering to assert its rights, is wholly unsupported."
The university however, in light of the new ruling, has argued that seizing the tablets would frighten foreign museums away from loans to U.S. institutions, and that U.S.-owned objects overseas might also be seized.
Background on University of Chicago's artifacts
The Achaemenid (or PersepolisPersepolis
Perspolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire . Persepolis is situated northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in the Fars Province of modern Iran. In contemporary Persian, the site is known as Takht-e Jamshid...
) clay tablets were loaned to the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in 1937. They were discovered by archaeologists in 1933 and are legally the property of the National Museum of Iran
National Museum of Iran
The National Museum of Iran is a museum in Tehran, Iran. It is the combination of two museums, the old Muze-ye Irân-e Bâstân , and the modernistic white travertine National Arts Museum , inaugurated in 1972...
and the Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization. The artifacts came with the understanding that they would be returned to Iran. The tablets, from Persepolis
Persepolis
Perspolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire . Persepolis is situated northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in the Fars Province of modern Iran. In contemporary Persian, the site is known as Takht-e Jamshid...
, the capital of the Persian Empire, date to about 500 B.C.
The tablets give a view of daily life, with things like daily rations of barley that were given to workers in nearby regions of the empire. These tablets were sent to the capital to keep track of how they were paying workers. Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, said that details largely concern food for people on diplomatic or military missions. Each tablet is about half the size of a deck of Playing card
Playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games...
s and has characters of a dialect of Elamite, an extinct language
Extinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...
understood by perhaps a dozen scholars in the world.
Stein called it "the first chance to hear the Persians speaking of their own empire." Charles Jones, Research Associate and Librarian at the Oriental Institute and tablet expert compared them to "credit card receipts." Most of our current knowledge about the ancient Persian empire comes from the accounts of others, most famously the Greek storyteller Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
. Stein added, "It's valuable because it's a group of tablets, thousands of them from the same archive. It's like the same filing cabinet. They're very, very valuable scientifically."
The university's Oriental Institute had been returning them to Iran in small batches. The Institute had already returned 37,000 tablets and fragments to Iran and were preparing another shipment when Strachman intervened.
Field Museum case
The case of Chicago's Field MuseumField Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...
is however different. It faces a similar lawsuit, but argues that its Persian collection was bought on the open market and is not owned by Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
.
Larger international impact
According to the UNESCOUNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
"Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property", transfer of ownership of any and all Persian antiques is illegal. On July 10, 2006, UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said the U.S. court decision was "illegal."
US government position
The executive branch of the US government, in particular the US State Department have been supportive of the Iranian government's position in this case, arguing like the University of Chicago that the artifacts are protected under the sovereign immunity doctrine.As in several other cases involving U.S. citizens and foreign nations, the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
argued that national interest
National interest
The national interest, often referred to by the French expression raison d'État , is a country's goals and ambitions whether economic, military, or cultural. The concept is an important one in international relations where pursuit of the national interest is the foundation of the realist...
is better served if such disputes are resolved through diplomatic negotiations rather than legal suit. Poking fun at the United States government, Manning wrote that "[t]he government relegates the [key] argument to a footnote."
Iranian response
Iran has strongly condemned a U.S. court ruling authorizing the seizure of ancient clay tablets. In late June 2006, Manouchehr MottakiManouchehr Mottaki
Manouchehr Mottaki is an Iranian politician and diplomat. He was the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Whilst technically appointed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he is considered to be closer to more pragmatic conservative factions and during the 2005 presidential election, he was the campaign...
, Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs
Minister of Foreign Affairs (Iran)
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is an Iranian government ministry. The Minister for Foreign Affairs is the Cabinet member in charge....
, warned that "if the US denies Iran's right to its properties and assets to satisfy judgments by some of its court, Tehran will reciprocate the action." Other officials expressed outrage, too, saying they will appeal to the International Court of Justice, UNESCO, and other international bodies.
Iranian Foreign Minister said "one of Americans' usual propaganda ploys is raising claims at the US courts based on the country's civil laws, which is contrary to the international law." He said that Iran had adopted a similar law in 1999. This has resulted in complaints against the United States for such things as its role in Operation Ajax
Operation Ajax
The 1953 Iranian coup d'état was the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953, orchestrated by the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom and the United States under the name TPAJAX Project...
and the Iran–Iraq War. So far, three billion dollars in penalties have been issued against the US government. Mottaki says that Iran would follow up the case with UNESCO.
In September 2006 former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...
met with Oriental Institute director Gil Stein and U. of C. provost Richard Saller to discuss the future of the tablets. Iran has characterized the situation as a U.S.-engineered heist. Khatami argued that the tablets "do not belong to governments but to the Iranian nation and the world".
Iranian embassies around the world condemned the ruling, which they say violates international norms and regulations. The Iranian embassy in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
strongly criticized a US federal court order to auction more than 30,000 clay tablets obtained during excavations in the Persepolis in 1935 and placed in the University of Chicago's museum on loan. The embassy's statement reads: "The tablets were transferred to the US and delivered to the institute as part of the cultural heritage of the Iranian people."
Apart from Iranian government, several American NGOs including The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and the Iranian American Bar Association (IABA) made attempts to protect the items.
About 3,000 Iranians living outside the country have signed a petition calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to step in to reverse the ruling. They argue that the Iranian people should not be punished for "whatever the Islamic regime of Iran is doing in the international arena."
Gil Stein
Gil Stein (archaeologist)
Gil Stein is an American archaeologist and current director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.Stein received a B.A. from Yale University in 1978 and a Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of Pennsylvania.-Publications:...
, director of the Oriental Institute
Oriental Institute, Chicago
The Oriental Institute , established in 1919, is the University of Chicago's archeology museum and research center for ancient Near Eastern studies.- History and purpose:James Henry Breasted built up the collection of the Haskell Oriental Museum...
at the University of Chicago said, "The Iranians are understandably furious about this. You'd have to imagine how we would feel if we loaned the Liberty Bell
Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell is an iconic symbol of American Independence, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formerly placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House , the bell was commissioned from the London firm of Lester and Pack in 1752, and was cast with the lettering "Proclaim LIBERTY...
to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and a Russian court put it up for auction."
In response to Iran's reaction, Strachman said that Iranian commentators had been going into "crazy conspiracy theories", including calling it a Zionist conspiracy." Strachman did not comment on the fact that Farah Pahlavi
Farah Pahlavi
Farah Pahlavi is the former Queen and Empress of Iran. She is the widow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, and only Empress of modern Iran...
, former empress of Iran who is not tied to the current government of Iran, has also voiced her strong objection to Strachman's efforts to seize the tablets.
In early July 2006, following the decision, Iran sent Washington lawyer Thomas Corcoran
Thomas Corcoran
Thomas Corcoran may refer to:*Tommy Corcoran , baseball player*Tom Corcoran , Florida-based writer of mystery novels*Tom Corcoran , American alpine skier*Tom Corcoran , U.S. politician...
to Chicago after years of refusing to participate in either the original terrorism case or the Chicago artifacts litigation, to assert Iran's immunities. Patty Gerstenblith, a cultural property law specialist at DePaul University
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...
, said that Corcoran's appearance changes matters greatly, as the crux of the judge's ruling was that Iran had to assert sovereign immunity itself. "It changes things pretty dramatically. If foreign sovereign immunity can be asserted, the case should be more or less resolved," she said.
See also
- Anti-IranianismAnti-IranianismAnti-Iranian sentiment is feelings and expression of hostility, hatred, discrimination, or prejudice towards Iran and its culture, and towards persons based on their association with Iran and Iranian culture...
- Sanctions against IranSanctions against IranThis article outlines economic, trade, scientific and military sanctions against Iran, which have been imposed by the U.S. government, or under U.S. pressure by the international community through the United Nations Security Council...
- Sanctions against Iranian scientistsSanctions against Iranian scientistsScientific sanctions against Iranians include all actions taken to directly or indirectly suppress Iranian scientific community. United States and several other western countries, their scientific communities and companies have been actively involved in suppression of Iranian scientific community...
External links
- Persian Artifacts, Victims of Political Crisis
- Iran, US In New Cultural Battle
- Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago
- Persepolis Fortification Archive Project This site provides information on the Persepolis Fortification Archive project based at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
- BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
reports: Chicago's Persian heritage crisis - United Press InternationalUnited Press InternationalUnited Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
reports: Iranian antiquities may be seized in suit - Report by The Australian
- Correspondence between National Museum of Iran and University of Chicago
- ISNAISNAISNA can refer to:Abbreviations/acronyms* Iranian Students' News Agency* Intersex Society of North America* Islamic Society of North America* Indigenous Sovereign Nation Assembly, an assembly of indigenous nations in New Zealand and vicinityPlaces...
reports: The US Court ruling is a political move http://www.payvand.com/news/06/jul/1012.html - Iranian.comIranian.comIranian.com, also known as The Iranian and The Iranian Times, is an online English language magazine.Founded in July 1995 by entrepreneur/journalist Jahanshah Javid, Iranian.com has the largest online following among Iranians residing in North America, with about 68,000 visitors per month-Awards...
interview in 2004: Going home: On University of Chicago's return of ancient tablets to Iran - Hamid Reza AssefiHamid Reza AssefiHamid Reza Assefi was born in Mashhad, Iran. Spokesman, Vice Minister of Parliamentary and Consular Affairs and Communication, and the Special Assistant to the Minister at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs under President Khatami. He is now Iran's ambassador to the UAE.He was an ambassador...
of Iran's Foreign Affairs Ministry: We will pursue these events at UN's headquarters and in UNESCO - Prosecutor General of Iran's Supreme Court: These events are an assault on the cultural heritage of Iran
- Iran asked UNESCO to step in (BBC Persian)
- Illegal decision of a judge
- Confiscation of Iranian Historic Artifacts in US
- Fate of Persian Tablets Still Undetermined (Jan 2007)