The Statement of Accounts for the Expenditure of Restoring Artworks from Royal Palaces

In the National Archive of Iran there is a record which contains the state of accounts for the expenditure of restoring a part of the Royal Chādorkhāneh (a warehouse to store royal tents) as well as a considerable number of paintings from Golestān, Farah-Ā􀇊 bād and Sāhebqarāniyeh palaces dating back to 1316-17 SH (1937-39 ĀD). The record includes eight letters, two statements of accounts and a detailed inventory of restoring evaluation of works presented in twelve sheets of paper. The most important content of the letters was to arrange a plan to appoint technical commissions and to deliver a report to the Imperial Court and the Ministry of Finance. Regarding the date and the content of extant documents, the statement of accounts for the evaluation of expenditure of restoring the Royal Chādorkhāneh has been prepared and sent in less than a month. Nevertheless, the evaluation of the expenditure of restoring artworks in royal palaces seems to have taken more time than usual and the establishment of the commission encountered problems as well. Āpparently, Hossein Sheikh, the painter, and Nejāt-Āli, the frame maker, as representatives of the Ministry of Industry, have worked sometime in private palace, examining and evaluating all the extant paintings of Golestān, Farah-Ā􀇊 bād and Sāhebqarāniyeh palaces. They found 464 works in need of restoration. The present table is the minimum evaluation of the expenditure by the two connoisseurs for preparing required equipment to restore the works in royal palaces in 1316 SH (1937-38 ĀD). In the list the numbers of paintings’ tags except 33 cases, have been identified first. Then a short description of the title or subject of paintings and the probable place and the amount of damage has been mentioned. Besides, the numbers of some paintings’ plaques, different from tags’ numbers, are provided. Finally, the expenditure relating to each work has been presented under titles as “expenditure on oil and lacquer”, “expenditure on restoration of the painting” and “expenditure on restoring the frame”. The approximate evaluation of the expenditure for each painting varies from 5 to 200 rials with the total amount of 4476/5 rials. It was supposed to offer the restoration process to the representatives of the Ministry of Industry. Therefore, a monthly amount of 500 rials was dedicated for each of the experts. The due time allotted to restoring the paintings and the frames was respectively 15 and 5 months, hence the total amount of 14476/5 rials. Despite all this, it seems that the evaluation of the total sum in rows no. 81, 146 and 255 is not accurate, so we should reduce 1/5 rials from the total expenditure of the restoration. At the end of the above statement of accounts it has implicitly been mentioned that there was no urgent need for such restoration. Hence, it seems improbable that such a process has been undertaken at all.