page_title: Farah Pahlavi
section_title: Ancient art
hierarchical_section_title: Farah Pahlavi / Contributions to art and culture / Ancient art
caption_attribution_description: English: Schahbanu Farah Pahlavi, state visit China, 1972
context_page_description: Farah Pahlavi is the widow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and was the Shahbanu of Iran.
  Farah was born into a prosperous family, whose fortunes were diminished after her father's early death. While studying architecture in Paris, she was introduced to the Shah at the Iranian Embassy, and they were married in December 1959. The Shah's first two marriages had not produced a son, necessary for the succession, so there was great rejoicing at the birth of Crown Prince Reza the following October. Farah was then free to pursue interests other than domestic duties, though she was not allowed a political role. She worked for many charities, and founded Iran's first American-style university, enabling more women to become students. She also facilitated the buying-back of Iranian antiquities from museums abroad.
  By 1978, there were clear signs of impending revolution, and the Imperial couple left the country in January 1979 under a death sentence. For this reason, most countries were reluctant to harbour them, President Sadat’s Egypt being an exception. But the Shah's health was failing, and he died in July 1980.
context_section_description: Historically a culturally rich country, the Iran of the 1960s had little to show for it. Many of the great artistic treasures produced during its 2,500-year history had found their way into the hands of foreign museums and private collections. It became one of the Empress's principal goals to procure for Iran an appropriate collection of its own historic artifacts. To that end, she secured from her husband's government permission and funds to "buy back" a wide selection of Iranian artifacts from foreign and domestic collections. This was achieved with the help of the brothers Houshang and Mehdi Mahboubian, the most prominent Iranian antiquities dealers of the era, who advised the Empress from 1972 to 1978. With these artifacts she founded several national museums (many of which still survive to this day) and began an Iranian version of the National Trust.
  Museums and cultural centres created under her guidance include the Negarestan Cultural Center, the Reza Abbasi Museum, the Khorramabad Museum with its valuable collection of Lorestān bronzes, the National Carpet Gallery and the Glassware and Ceramic Museum of Iran.
caption: Farah in China
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