BEIRUT - Artworks that had been part of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) collection but which went missing during Israeli bombing of Lebanon in 1982 have resurfaced in the basement of a Tehran museum and some private homes in the Lebanese capital.
The Palestinian artist Nasser Soumi is working to recover part of the almost 200 works donated in the 1970s by painters from 31 countries who supported the Palestinian cause, including Guttuso, Mirò, Tapies, Giò Pomodoro, Samonà and Treccani.
Soumi has recently returned from Iran, where he received a pledge from the director of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Majid Molla-Norouzi, to send 37 of the works - which have been in storage in the museum for 34 years - back to Beirut. The paintings had been in the Iranian capital for a temporary exhibition when Israeli troops invaded Lebanon and the PLO left Beirut and headed for Tunisia.
Soumi has established a foundation in Paris, where he has lived since 1980, to reconstruct an 'International Museum of Solidarity with Palestine' that would from next year be hosted by Beirut's Dar Al-Nimr. ''Once Palestine is liberated, we want to bring it there,'' he said. The Palestinian Museum built near Ramallah with funds raised by a Palestinian diaspora charity is meant to be where it will eventually be permanently located.
The museum, which was inaugurated by President Mahmoud Abbas in May, has not yet hosted any exhibition. Italy, with 28 artists, and France were the two countries that contributed the most to forming the collection.
Source:
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/nations/lebanon/2016/06/22/plo-art-collection-resurfaces-in-tehran-and-beirut_aa3a597a-1785-4e67-91f4-82c8c8581031.html