Demonstration in Tehran against Transferring the Museum of Art to the Private Sector
9-April-2016
Category: Freedom of Expression
Breathing in Confinement – A group of people in Tehran gathered in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art, to protest against the privatization of this institution.
According to the report of “Breathing in Confinement”, about three hundred people in Tehran gathered in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art in this city to protest against transferring this museum to the private sector.
According to one of the participants in the rally, after a while, one of the museum officials attended the gathering of people and denied the institutions transference to the private sector and called it a “misunderstanding”.
He has been trying to lead demonstrators from the street to the Laleh Park, but faced the slogan of “Right here, right here” by the audience and was forced to retreat.
Then, the chairman of the museum showed up among the people while having some scrolls in his hand which were written by some officials against this decision and was signed by them. Then he asked the people to sign these scrolls and end their rally.
The rally was ended at 7 pm.
According one of the participants in the rally; “In fact, the surrender of the museum, means putting all art works in auction, which are the Iranians’ national capital.” He stressed that “The government wants to escape from the cost of the museum and that’s why they are planning to hand it over to the private sector, in which case the museum will become a financial firm and will lose its cultural function.”
