TEHRAN – A newly recovered Achaemenid-era (550-330 BC) bas-relief, which President Hassan Rouhani brought it back from the U.S. on September 27, will be put on show in a select of cities across the country.

On Saturday, Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization Director Ali-Asghar Mounesan opened the first leg of the tour, which is being showcased at the National Museum of Iran in downtown Tehran.

The limestone relief, which depicts a Persian guard, was confiscated in October from the Park Avenue Armory in New York, where it was being offered for sale at an art fair. A U.S. judge ruled earlier in June that the exquisite relic should be returned to Iran.

“Following days of being showcased at the National Museum of Iran, the bas-relief will be transferred to a selects of Iranian cities to be visited by enthusiasts,” the official said.

“The bas-relief was returned to the country after 80 years… Information about this object was provided to Iran in 2017 only five days before the auction,” Mounesan explained.

It is an eight-inch-square piece of carved limestone that was part of a long line of soldiers depicted on a balustrade at the central building on the UNESCO-registered Persepolis in southern Iran.

AFM/MG