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US Returns to Iran Latest Batch of Ancient Clay Tablets

Achaemenid-era clay tablets returned from the United States and on display at Iran's National Museum in Tehran on October 2, 2019 - AFP
Achaemenid-era clay tablets returned from the United States and on display at Iran's National Museum in Tehran on October 2, 2019 - AFP
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US Returns to Iran Latest Batch of Ancient Clay Tablets

Achaemenid-era clay tablets returned from the United States and on display at Iran's National Museum in Tehran on October 2, 2019 - AFP
Achaemenid-era clay tablets returned from the United States and on display at Iran's National Museum in Tehran on October 2, 2019 - AFP

The United States has returned to Iran more than 1,000 clay tablets dating from the Achaemenid-era, official media said, reporting the sixth such handover of its kind.

Iran's official IRNA news agency said Thursday evening that the tablets, 1,100 in all, were returned with President Masoud Pezeshkian who had attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Found at the ruins of Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire which ruled from the 6th to 4th centuries BC in southern Iran, the repatriated tablets reflect how the ancient society was organised and its economy managed.

According to AFP, the tablets constitute records of "the rituals and the way of life of our ancestors", said Ali Darabi, vice-minister of cultural heritage, cited by IRNA.

The tablets were returned to Iran by the University of Chicago's Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa, formerly known as the Oriental Institute.

A large portion of the tablets were returned in three batches between 1948 and 2004 before the rest were blocked by legal action until 2018.

More than 3,500 tablets were repatriated in September, 2023.

"The American side undertook to return the rest," Darabi said, cited by Iran's ISNA news agency.

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'Cezanne at Home': Show Retraces Artist's Roots in Southern France

Works that Cezanne painted in his native city and family home will be on display at the Granet museum. Christophe SIMON / AFP
Works that Cezanne painted in his native city and family home will be on display at the Granet museum. Christophe SIMON / AFP
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'Cezanne at Home': Show Retraces Artist's Roots in Southern France

Works that Cezanne painted in his native city and family home will be on display at the Granet museum. Christophe SIMON / AFP
Works that Cezanne painted in his native city and family home will be on display at the Granet museum. Christophe SIMON / AFP

A city in southern France is celebrating its most famous local painter Paul Cezanne with an exhibition showcasing his works inspired by the sun-drenched landscapes of the Provence region.

Paintings by Cezanne, created in his hometown of Aix-en-Provence and at his family estate, went on display Saturday at the Granet Museum in the city for the over three-month exhibition, which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors.

The theme of the exhibit is "Cezanne at home," said the city's mayor Sophie Joissains, said AFP.

The vivid southern French countryside provided most of the inspiration for Cezanne's works, composed mainly of still lifes and landscapes.

But the artist, known as one of the fathers of modern art, was hated by critics and shunned by his native city during his life and even years after his death.

"As long as I live, no Cezanne will enter the museum," then-conservator of the Granet Museum Henri Pontier promised after Cezanne died in 1906.

For decades, "a modest copy of a classic male nude, made during his studies, was the only work of Cezanne's in the museum of his city," said Bruno Ely, current director of the museum and the exhibit's curator.

The century-long rift between Cezanne and his native city came to an end in 2006 when the Granet Museum held its first exhibition of the artist's work.

The city has since declared 2025 "Cezanne's Year," organizing a series of events celebrating his work and leaving any historical estrangement firmly in the past.

The "Cezanne au Jas de Bouffan" (Cezane at the Jas de Bouffan) exhibit displays 135 paintings, drawings and etchings, originating from museums and collectors from over a dozen different countries.

The evolution of Cezanne's painting style will be on display, from his earlier darker works featuring thick paint spread with a palette knife to impressionism to a pre-cubist style.

Though the Provence region where Cezanne roamed was "tiny," it was "enough for him to reinvent painting", said Ely.

The exhibition comes alongside major restoration efforts at the three-storey Jas de Bouffan manor home, where the Cezanne family lived in the late 19th century.

Young Cezanne adorned the estate's living room with colorful frescos, perhaps with the intention of impressing his banker father, who had wanted his son to be a lawyer or a financer.

The exhibition runs to October 12.