
TEHRAN, Iran -- Nearly half a century after it opened to international acclaim in 1977, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art has well and truly survived the Islamic Revolution that swept away so much else associated with the imperial state.
Commissioned by Iran's former Queen Farah Pahlavi and designed by her cousin Kamran Diba, the museum remains something of an alien influence: a pristine monument to the old regime renowned for its collection of Western art, now valued at up to $10 billion.