Iranian museum closes temporarily after bugs infest famous artwork
The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art issued a formal apology and vowed to address the problem after paper-eating insects were spotted in its highly popular exhibition of minimalism and conceptual art.
“Where there is one, there could be more.”
This was the initial remark of the museum director after a video of two bugs inside the frame on the bottom-left corner of a 1978 work by Bernd and Hilla Becher, went viral on social media.
The video, shot on Aug. 13 by a visitor and reshared by BBC Persian, garnered over a million views on Instagram in hours. It also prompted quick reaction from the museum officials. Yet in response to a question from the Iranian semi-official news agency ISNA, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) director Ebadreza Eslami Kulai downplayed the incident and dismissed any concerns over the damage to the photo in question or other works on display, saying that investigations done overnight found no pest trace or debris elsewhere. However, he emphasized that other experts and pest technicians were on the way to further evaluate the situation and take necessary measures.
The museum closed from Aug. 18-19 for fumigation.
