The successful procurement of these loans may be a sign of more collaborative projects to come between the British Museum and Iran

The show is an attempt by Prime Minister Ayatollah Khatami to eliminate bad feeling between Iran and the West, and to spread awareness about the archaeological sites in the country under threat

The Art Newspaper speaks to the museum's director Sami Azar about how a more progressive government brought about Iran's increasing acceptance of Western ideas

Archaeologically, architecturally and art-historically, Iran is very much on the move

The exhibition, which would have highlighted the creative flourishing facilitated by members of Iranian royalty, may still become a reality in 2004 or 2005

Telling universal stories about love, insanity, and death through film and music

The textile trade, especially in carpets, will improve but metalworks and manuscripts are still restricted

The Shah's policy decreed that private individuals could sponsor excavations and keep a portion of the finds

The first survey of a fashion for portraiture that swept the Persian court lifts the veil on Iranian history

Neshat links three incongruous images - the bare soles of the feet, Arabic script and gun violence - to achieve a conceit

His great Persian manuscript paintings are now on loan to the Sackler

The greatest surviving Persian manuscript was swapped for Woman III, once owned by the Shah of Iran

This legislation may come to late, as several archaeological sites have already been looted, and their content distributed throughout the international market