TEHRAN - Veteran Iranian museum curator, restorer, and cultural heritage expert Abbas Etemad Fini died on Tuesday after a period of illness.

Etemad Fini collaborated with well-known archaeologists such as Roman Ghirshman, Jean Perrot, and Sadegh Malek Shahmirzadi and was a member of various archaeological teams in Khuzestan and Sialk, the National Museum of Iran told the Tehran Times on Wednesday.

Moreover, he served as curator of the Sialk museum and conservator, with more than seventy years of experience in the field of cultural heritage and restoration.

Born 1936 in Fin of Kashan, Etemad Fini joined to Sialk excavation team as a teenager due to the cooperation of his father, "Ahmad Etemad Fini" with the research team of Sialk and Roman Ghirshman.

For more than three decades, he participated with Ghirshman and later Jean Perrot in the excavations of Susa and Ivan-e Karkheh, Chogha Zanbil, Masjid Soleiman, Khark Island, and Kangavar. Etemad joined the archaeological project of Silk at the beginning of the re-excavations of Silk in 2001, and after several seasons of excavations, he became the curator of the Sialk Museum for more than 20 years, and at the same time, he actively participated in the restoration of the archaeological finds.

Etamad Fini had a deep knowledge of conservation and adobe architecture, and due to his experiences in this field, he was invited by the Archéodrome archaeological Park in Burgundy, France, to hold a workshop and experimental construction of adobe structures.

Etemed Fini spoke French well. His book “The Secret of Number Seven” was published by Babr Publications in 2019. Nasim Mograzi wrote his biography "Ser-e Sweida” which was published by Edbestan Novin Publishing House.

In recognition of his efforts in the field of cultural heritage for more than half a century, a commemoration ceremony was held in the Sialk archaeological base in 2019.

National Museum of Iran Director Jabrael Nokandeh expressed his condolences to the late Etemad Fini’s family and the people of Kashan. He added that Abbas Etemad Fini will be greatly missed, but his efforts for the cultural heritage of Iran will be remembered forever.

AFM