TEHRAN -- Iran’s embassy in Paris has issued a statement in response to Iranian press protests about the fact that embassy officials discarded the prize-winning sculpture “The Growth” with the trash.

The embassy alleges that Kambiz Sharif, who sculpted the artwork, after displaying it in Paris, had it transferred to their venue at his own request and that, furthermore, he received remuneration for its erection.
Iran’s embassy claims that the sculpture never belonged to the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts and that it was not transferred to Paris from Tehran.
Due to the way in which the 7-meter wooden carving had been set up and its vulnerability in an open-air situation, it was irreparably damaged during a hurricane that hit Paris.
Iran’s embassy in Paris refutes the claim that there was an agreement that measures be taken to protect the artwork.
Kambiz Sharif himself asserts that the sculpture had been transferred to Paris from Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art at the request of the former ambassador, Sadeq Kharazi.
Sharif said that he had only recently been informed that the sculpture had broken into pieces a year ago and had been removed from the venue as garbage