Achaemenid bas-relief was sold in Christies London

NCRI – Since the inception of mullahs’ regime thirty years ago, one of the devastating aspects of their rule, however not so obvious to the outside world as for example their activities in the nuclear field, has been the gradual wiping out of this nation’s precious signs of its ancient civilization.

"The queried Iranian Achaemenid bas-relief has finally been acquired by an anonymous buyer at Christies’ auction house in London for 580,000 pounds (about $1.2 million)," the state-run daily Tehran Times reported on October 25. However, the daily does not say why the mullahs’ regime did not object when the artifact was sold twice before in New York in past quarter of a century and all of a sudden realized that there is a valuable belonging of Iranian history "fetches over $1 million at Christies." 

"The queried Iranian Achaemenid bas-relief has finally been acquired by an anonymous buyer at Christies’ auction house in London for 580,000 pounds (about $1.2 million)," the state-run daily Tehran Times reported on October 25. However, the daily does not say why the mullahs’ regime did not object when the artifact was sold twice before in New York in past quarter of a century and all of a sudden realized that there is a valuable belonging of Iranian history "fetches over $1 million at Christies." 
 
The limestone bas-relief had been severed from the eastern staircase of the Apadana Palace, which was built by Xerxes I at Persepolis, located in southern Iran’s Fars Province, near modern-day Shiraz.

More interesting is that last year Ahmadinejad who is famous for his revulsion against any indication of Iran’s past history and culture under the pretext of expanding Islamic traditions, tried vehemently to demolish the entire Perspolis, and Apadana, the tomb of Cyrus the Great by giving the go ahead for the building of Sivand Dam. The construction which will be fully operational soon is a dam in Fars Province, Iran. Named after the nearby town of Sivand located northwest of Shiraz, it has become the center of worldwide concern due to the flooding it will cause in historical and archaeologically rich areas of Ancient Persia and possible harm it may cause to the nearby UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Persepolis and Pasargadae.

It goes with out saying that the Achamenid bas-relief, however painful it may seem losing it, is a tiny part of Iranian people’s culture quashed under the mullahs. The most priceless treasure of all times is the lives of Iranian youths taken by gallows in the county.