TEHRAN -- A group of experts from Switzerland’s Beyeler Foundation is mulling over restoration of a painting by German surrealist painter and sculptor Max Ernst (1891-1976), which is kept at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMCA).
The group is led by chief conservator Markus Gross and curator Oliver Wick, TMCA Director Ehsan Aqaii said in a press conference on Saturday.
The group also plans to discuss the loan of the artwork for a show, which will be held in Germany in 2013, he added.
Members of the group will be asked for their views on the restoration of the painting and an assessment of the cost of the work, Aqaii noted and added, “Then the TMCA will make a final decision.”
“Museums usually do not receive any money for loaning an artwork, but we would like the Beyeler Foundation to conduct the restoration if the artwork is scheduled to go on display in Germany,” he stated.
Cracks have been appeared on the surface of the right upper corner of Ernst’s 254x232 centimeter painting.
The painting is generally in good condition, but it needs restorations in some parts, Markus Gross said at the press conference.
This work was part of a mural Ernst created on a wall of a bedroom, Oliver Wick said.
A special technique was used during the 1960s to separate the artwork from the wall and it was fitted on canvas, he added.
Small parts of the artwork are kept in a German museum and a private collection, Wick said.
The TMCA accumulated over 300 works by the world’s august artists including Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Edvard Munch, Paul Cézanne, Edouard Monet and Vincent van Gogh before the Islamic Revolution. A collection of works by Iranian artists was also acquired after the revolution.
The museum has loaned works for some international shows over the past few years.
Jackson Pollock’s “Mural on Indian Red Ground” from the TMCA’s collection was put on display at Jackson Pollock: A Centennial Retrospective, which was held at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo from February 10 to May 6, 2012.
In October 2010, the TMCA loaned Picasso’s “The Painter and His Model” to the Kunsthaus Zurich show.
Dutch artist Kees van Dongen’s “Trinidad Fernandez” was also loaned to Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam in 2010.
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