US President Donald Trump has announced an agreement on his social network between the United States, Iran and Israel. But in addition to that this agreement must be really confirmed by the other parties, its implementation seems uncertain. Also the measures taken by the authorities in Iran and Israel to protect heritage places should not be lifted anytime soon.
In Iran, very little information is available, communications being cut with the rest of the world. The Vice Minister of Culture, Ali Darabi, had ordered the immediate closure of UNESCO museums and sites on June 13, including the Iran National Museum, the largest Persian history museum, and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, housing works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock. The Palais Golestan has also been closed. He said “All risk parts have been protected in time”. The collections were moved to secure warehouses.
In Israel, the museums of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv – including the Museum of Israel and Tel Aviv Museum of Art – activated their protocols as soon as the raids announce. Museum agents transferred the dead sea rolls, the Codex Sassoon and other works in chests. Suzanne Landau, a museum manager of Israel, explains: “We are used to this procedure”already used during the crises of October 7, 2023 and Iranian reprisals in August 2024. Theaters, festivals and concerts are also closed. The Israel Opera, unable to present its productions, has made its old productions accessible in VOD. Aya Luria, director of the Herzliya contemporary art museum, specifies that she organized video visits that attracted hundreds of spectators.
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran.
Before the de -escalation hoped for today, the conflict between Israel and Iran had taken a particularly destructive and murderous turn. Since June 13, Israel has been leading strikes against Iranian installations as part of Operation Rising Lion. Iran replied with the True Promise Operation 3, launching more than 280 missiles to Haifa, such as Aviv and Ashdod, resulting in material damage as well as civil and military victims, while the United States carried out a nuclear sites destroying in the night of June 21 to 22.
Iran sent a letter to UNESCO, signed by Minister Seyyed Reza Salehi Amiri, asking for respect for the Hague Convention (1954), the creation of an emergency committee and a warning to Israel concerning the dangers of targeting cultural property, qualified as potential war crime. “These monuments and landscapes, recognized as part of the common heritage of humanity, represent not only the historical memory of Iran, but also the civilizational identity of the world”explains the minister in his press release. ICOM expressed its “Deep worries” concerning the possible destruction of heritage goods.
