TEHRAN -- Former curator of the National Museum of Iran (NMI) believes the Iranian museum could have won the world’s trust so that world’s great museums would be ready to loan their prized pieces to Iran for seasonal shows.

“The British Museum’s agreement to loan the Cyrus Cylinder to Iran indicates that the world trusts Iran’s museum expertise,” Mohammadreza Kargar told the Persian service of CHN on Friday.
The Cyrus Cylinder along with a unique collection of Iranian artifacts loaned from other museums throughout the world will be displayed during an exhibit at the NMI for several months beginning in May.
The principal arrangements and negotiations for the show were made in 2005, when Kargar was in charge of the NMI. He is currently the director of the Vahadt Hall, one of Tehran’s major venues for music and theatrical performances.
He rejected any possible erosion to the valuable object as a result of transfer and shipping, adding, “I don’t think the Cyrus Cylinder is loaned to any other country every year. Iran’s spiritual ownership of the object is the main reason for the British Museum’s collaboration with Iran.”
“The Cyrus Cylinder has been found in a place, which was once part of the territory of the Persian Empire, thus it is adaptable to Iran’s climate. In addition, the artifact is made of a clay from packed earth, which is a material that resists change,” he explained.
The Cyrus Cylinder, called “the world’s first declaration of human rights” by some scholars, is a document issued by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the form of a clay cylinder inscribed in Akkadian cuneiform script.
The cylinder was created following the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, when Cyrus overthrew the Babylonian king Nabonidus and replaced him as ruler, ending the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The text of the cylinder denounces Nabonidus as impious and portrays the victorious Cyrus as pleasing to the chief Babylonian god Marduk. It goes on to describe how Cyrus had improved the lives of the citizens of Babylonia, repatriated displaced peoples and restored temples and cult sanctuaries.
The cylinder was discovered in 1879 by the Assyro-British archaeologist Hormuz Rassam in the foundations of the Esagila, the main temple of Babylon. Today it is kept in the British Museum in London.
Photo: The Cyrus Cylinder on display at the British Museum