57 Historical Artifacts Removed from Iran's National Registry During the Previous Government

On Tuesday, August 12, the director general of the Office of Historical and Cultural Heritage Registration of Iran's Cultural Heritage and Handicrafts Organization announced that during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, 57 historical artifacts were removed from Iran's national registry. Farhad Nazari stated this in an interview with the Iranian Labor News Agency, ILNA, and added that the cancellation of national registration occurs when a court review indicates that 'the registration process was incorrect' or 'the necessary values for registration were not present.' He emphasized that '57 artifacts were removed from the national registry during the previous government, and in this government, the national registration of some artifacts has also been canceled, which does not exceed the number of fingers on one hand, and all of them were registered during the previous administration; none of them belong to the eleventh government.' Besides the removal of historical artifacts from the national registry, the issue of removing artifacts from the cultural heritage list has also been raised in recent years, with one official reporting last year that about 700 artifacts were removed from this list in Mazandaran province. Mehdi Izadi, the deputy of cultural heritage at the Mazandaran Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Department, stated on April 29, 2015, in an interview with Mehr News Agency that over 2,500 historical and natural artifacts have been identified in Mazandaran, of which about 700 artifacts have been removed from the cultural heritage list in recent years due to various reasons, including destruction or change of use. According to Mehr's report, 'the removal of historical artifacts from the national list and the change of use of historical sites in Mazandaran has taken on a concerning pace, to the extent that some of these old buildings have been turned into tea houses and some into fodder storage.' Mehdi Izadi also emphasized on May 11 of this year in an interview with IRNA that due to 70% of the historical artifacts in Mazandaran not being registered in the national list, there is no government budget line for the restoration of these artifacts, and for this reason, '70% of the historical artifacts in Mazandaran' are at risk of destruction. Currently, in Tehran and many other cities, hundreds of historical houses have been destroyed or are at risk of destruction and looting, one of the reasons for these demolitions being the removal of these houses from the list of historical buildings by the Administrative Justice Court. In this context, last month it was reported that the 'Executive Headquarters of Imam's Command' sold a historical house known as the 'Governor's House of Tehran' to one of the 'construction violators,' and this building is at risk of destruction. This historical house is located on Ferdowsi Street and within the 'Nasseri Wall' area and is attributed to one of the former custodians of Tehran.