Tehran, 21 January 2007 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- In a court session held in London last week attended by authorities and experts of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO), the British Court refused to rule in favor of Iran for the retrieval of the Achaemenid bas-relief and referred the case to the Appeal Court for further investigations.

 

Refusal of British Court to Iran’s ownership claim over bas-relief of an Achaemenid soldier and its denial to return it back to its home country is an obvious violation of the cultural, political, social and international regulations of the Declaration of Human Rights.

 

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, a legal expert told CHN that by turning down Iran’s appeal to redeem its historic relic, the Court of London has acted against international regulations. “Based on international conventions especially the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties which entered into force on 27 January 1980, as well as UNESCO regulations, and considering that Iran’s ownership over the Achaemenid bas-relief was obvious, the refusal of the Court of London to Iran’s appeal was a violation of the international regulations and shows that London’s Court does not abide by international treaties,” said Dadkhah.

 

In March 2005, the Iranian Embassy in London warned about the sale of bas-relief of an Achaemenid soldier which was due to go on auction in London. About a month later, Christie’s auctioneer in London included a limestone bas-relief of an Achaemenid soldier in its sale with an estimated price of 200,000 to 300,000 pounds.

 

This prompted the Iranian cultural heritage officials to submit a legal complaint to a London court, asking for a halt on the sale and the retrieval of the item to its homeland.

 

Initial investigations revealed that the relief is part of the stairway of Apadana Palace in Persepolis complex which was sold in 1974 in an auction in New York and was bought by a private owner and kept for 30 years in her private collection in France. Later Iran was asked to provide the Court with the mold of the exact location of the Achamenid soldier bas-relief of Persepolis.

 

Yet in its latest session, the Court of London was not convinced by the documents presented by Iran and referred the case to the Appeal Court for a final verdict.

 

 

Soudabeh Sadigh

foreigndesk@chn.ir