IRAN: There won't be a nude in sight when Iran's Museum of Contemporary Art opens its doors to the public today, in the first exhibition of British contemporary art since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
But despite the lack of derrières and decolletage, this unprecedented exhibition is sure to ignite a buzz in an art scene closely monitored and controlled by Islamic censors.
"It's a long-awaited wish," said the museum's director, Dr Ali Reza Sami-Azar. "We're very excited. It's the greatest show ever in Iran in terms of the quantity, quality and significance of art on display."
The exhibition covers British art in the 20th century through three generations of artists - from sculptor Henry Moore to current bad boy of Britart, Damien Hirst.
On offer will be 57 pieces of art, including works by sculptors Barbara Hepworth, Eduardo Paolozzi, Tony Cragg and Anthony Caro.
But others failed to make the moral cut, including sculptor Antony Gormley, whose nude body plaster casts were considered a bridge too far for the demure tastes of the Islamic Republic.
Also cast aside were two pieces by sculptor Mona Hatoum, involving a wheelchair and pair of crutches, deemed too insensitive in a country where up to 750,000 people were wounded in the Iran-Iraq war.
Instead, visitors will be treated to an endoscopic view of Ms Hatoum's digestive system in an exhibit entitled Deep Throat.
"Iranian society is very open to any kind of artistic expression unless it presents anything against Islamic morality, now confined to nudity, particularly eroticism," said Dr Sami-Azar.
"Anything can be exhibited as long as it's not immoral, obscene or against a person's religious beliefs."
But two pieces with religious overtones that made it past the censors may set tongues wagging on Tehran's streets.
One includes a debut piece by Hirst called Resurrection, in which an actual human skeleton is suspended in a crucifix-like pose within a glass case.
A second piece by Iranian-born sculptor Shirazeh Houshiary incorporates three video screens which display Jewish, Christian and Islamic chants.
"I think it will be perceived very well," said Dr Sami-Azar. "Christians and Jews have been practising in Iran for generations."
Appointed five years ago by Iran's reformers, Dr Sami-Azar has re-energised the contemporary art scene, which declined amid the vehement anti-western rhetoric of Iran's revolution in 1979.
Since his directorship, Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art has become a pioneer of cultural change in Iran and a haven for a new generation of young artists who wish to join the global arts scene.
Other youngsters, less interested in art and more in the opposite sex, flock to the museum's trendy café every day to flirt and drink cappuccinos.
Some Iranians fear the fun may soon end following Friday's landslide electoral victory by Iran's conservatives. But Dr Sami-Azar hopes that the new parliament will keep their hands off the art works.
"The climate that we have been working in has been created by people and not by politicians," he said. "Politicians have to obey what society wants, and people want artistic expression to be respected."