Miuccia Prada, the fashion designer and entrepreneur who opened the Fondazione Prada in Milan in May, is positioning herself as a key player in Italy’s cultural diplomacy with Iran. Part of the foundation’s exhibition of ancient sculpture, Serial Classic, is due to go on show in September at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran.
Iran lent an ancient Greek statue of Penelope, excavated in Persepolis in 1945, to the Fondazione Prada’s inaugural show, which was organised by Salvatore Settis, the Italian archaeologist, art historian and former director of the Getty Research Institute. In Tehran, Penelope will be flanked by two Roman copies of the statue lent by the Vatican Museums and a smaller version from Rome’s Musei Capitolini, Settis tell us. The exchanges follow a cultural agreement signed between Iran and Italy in March.