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The British Museum today moved to calm a diplomatic row after Iran claimed political motives were behind a delay in loaning it a prize artefact regarded as the first declaration of human rights.
The museum said the small clay piece, known as the Cyrus Cylinder, would be sent to the National Museum of Iran in Tehran this year and there was no question of the loan being scrapped.
It was due to be loaned within days but its transfer was halted when two new pieces of tablet, bearing the same script as the cylinder, were discovered in a drawer at the British Museum over Christmas.
The significance of the new pieces, which have been at the museum since 1881, has only just been understood — and the museum want its experts to study all three items together before the cylinder is loaned for three to four months.
This has angered the Iranian government, which believes Britain is trying to stoke unrest after the contested re-election last year of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Hamid Baqaei, Iran's vice-president and head of its cultural heritage organisation, said: “We will cut off all our cultural relations with the museum if we realise later that it has been seeking excuses to shrug off our requests.”
A British Museum spokeswoman said today: “From the discussions we've had with the vice-president and the museum, they seem happy that we need to undertake this work. We are only talking about a postponement.”
The 23cm cylinder was discovered by a British Museum team in 1879 in Babylon. It is inscribed with an account by Cyrus, then King of Persia, of his conquest in 539BC. It is described as the first charter of human rights as it authorises the return of deported peoples to their homelands.
The British Museum said the two new pieces come from Dailem, near Babylon and proposed a workshop in June to assess them. “Scholars from Iran will also be involved,” it said.
Reader views (1)
Is the same Iran who wants to cut diplomatic ties with the UK???
We should NOT be dealing with Iran in anyway.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 21/01/2010 17:31
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