Mousavi: More than 1,700 Persepolis tablets returned to Iran
On Monday, October 28, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman announced that more than 1,700 tablets from Persepolis had been returned to Iran.
Abbas Mousavi wrote on Twitter: "Thanks to the efforts of the Ministries of Cultural Heritage, Foreign Affairs, and the Presidential Legal Office, more than 1,700 tablets from Persepolis were returned to the country."
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman added: "These tablets had been on loan to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago since 1935, with the permission of the then Iranian government, for the study of inscriptions and texts."
The Achaemenid tablets consisted of more than 30,000 tablets, which were sent by ship to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in 1314, based on government approval, and arrived there in 1316. Accordingly, expert examinations and studies were to be conducted on these tablets within three years and then returned to Iran.
After the translation and publication of a number of these tablets by American experts, a number of the tablets were returned to Iran on three occasions during the years 1327, 1350, and 1383. However, this process of returning them encountered difficulties and was halted due to a legal issue related to a terrorist attack in Jerusalem and the alleged involvement of Iran in that incident.
According to ISNA, Iran appeared in several court hearings held in this regard and proved that the tablets were not commercial in nature and were works of cultural and study nature and could not be confiscated.
Finally, in May 2016, it was announced that the remaining Achaemenid tablets would be returned to Iran.
These inscriptions show that a precise accounting system was in place during the Achaemenid era 2,500 years ago, and that all payments were made based on written financial documents, and that issues such as guarantors and guarantees were also common during this period.
In August of last year, the New York Supreme Court ruled that a relief that was taken out of Iran about 90 years ago and put up for auction in the United States must be returned to Iran.
The relief, which depicts an Achaemenid soldier, was seized by investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office from an exhibit at the Park Avenue Armory.
The art exhibition planned to sell this Achaemenid-era work at auction for $1.2 million.
According to the report, researchers said that this Achaemenid-era work, which was illegally exported from Iran in 1936, was stolen from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Canada in 2011.
Source: Radio Farda
