Ayatollahs or Shah nicked Bacon's triptych?

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Bacon triptych emerges from Tehran storeroom
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Charlotte Higgins, arts correspondent
Friday June 18, 2004
The Guardian


Bedside manner: Francis Bacon's Two Figures Lying on a Bed with Attendants, with two Tate Britain attendants. Photo: Graham Turner


A major triptych by Francis Bacon is about to see the light after languishing for more than 30 years in the store of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

Two Figures Lying on a Bed With Attendants (1968) was bought, having been shown in Europe in 1972, by the wife of the last shah of Iran. It became part of the collection of the Tehran museum, but it is thought to have been on display there only once in 30 years.

Then, in 2001, Tate Britain's director, Stephen Deuchar, holidayed in Iran. He stopped off at the Tehran museum, asked to meet the director, Ali Reza Sami Azar, and was shown the gallery's reserve collection.

"Even under the fluorescent lighting of the store we could see it was a strong work," Dr Deuchar said yesterday. "An idea of exchanging works emerged - we recently lent them a Bill Woodrow sculpture for a British Council exhibition in the Tehran museum."

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