TEHRAN -- Italian painter Angelo Antonio Falmi was one the special guests of the final day of a visual arts exhibition in Tehran on Monday.

The exhibition entitled “A Review of Visual Arts in the 19th and 20th Centuries”, featuring artworks of the Qajar, Afshar, and Zand eras, was held at the Saba Artistic and Cultural Complex from July 7 to August 7.

The exhibition displayed over 1000 items, including lithography works, stained glass, teahouse paintings, calligraphy, and photos. The items were on loan from the Golestan Palace, the National Museum of Iran, Sadabad Palace, Niavaran Palace, Shiraz’s Pars Museum, the Tbilisi History Museum, and the Abdol Azim Holy Shrine Museum, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Monday.

Falmi called the exhibition an extraordinary event which should have set off an artistic revolution in any visitor.

The stained glass and lithography works were astounding and reflected the thoughts of the people of each particular era, he observed.

“This is a complete collection of visual arts from these eras. Iran is one of the pillars in the world of art, and holding these exhibitions reveals the deep relationship between Iran’s and the world’s art,” he added.

The Italian professor of art history is to display his paintings in Iran for the first time in an exhibition at Tehran’s Homa Gallery, ISNA reported on Saturday.

The exhibition, which runs from August 11 to 21, will feature over 20 of his abstract paintings.