The Cultural Heritage Organization opened an exhibit of personal items of Iran's best-known fiction writer Sadeq Hedayat to commemorate the International Day of Museums 21 May, 2003. The exhibit will be on till 21 June.

In the brochure we read about another Hedayat project that predated the current exhibit:

"The thought of establishing a permanent place named after Sadeq Hedayat, in his own house, was proposed in 1977, and this house, in Hedayat Street… was appropriated and renovated to create a literary center…. Organizers of this project contacted relatives of the late writer, asking them for personal items of the wirter to recreate his house.

"After the Islamic Revolution, the renovation project, which had already gone under way, stopped. The reason was the proximity of this house to Amiralam Hospital, and unfortunately the space was designated for the hospital's nursery. In 2002 the Cultural Heritage Center of Tehran took control of the house of Hedayat and fortunately the house was registered as a National Landmark…."

In a telephone conversation, Jahangir Hedayat, who is also the publisher his late uncle's latest publications, we inquired about the current exhibit and he offered some explanation, "That the Ministry of Culture has decided for the first time to set up an exhibit as a Cultural Heritage, is of course welcomed. However, request for this exhibit was issued last year, in April of 2002, and, a year late, the current exhibit started without an opening ceremony, which is strange, to say the least. Some of the personal items of Hedayat that I had submitted to the museum were displayed incompletely. Also, many items were absent, including his desk, which is still at the Sociology Department of the University of Tehran. The brochure was tastefully designed, but the [national] radio and television is yet to announce the exhibit, which includes photographs, handwritings, and personal items of Sadeq Hedayat. 

Jahangir is tenaciously pursuing the Permanent Library of Sadeq Hedayat project.

Reza Abbasi Museum: Tehran, Shariati St, south of Seidkhandan Bridge, Tel. 863001~3

To learn more about the house of Hedayat: http://www.adabkade.com