TEHRAN -- The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMCA) has confirmed the authenticity of the art pieces that U.S. has delivered to Iran.

“A TMCA expert has proved the genuineness of the artworks after their release,” TMCA Director Majid Mollanoruzi told the Persian service of MNA on Saturday.

The artworks, which include fourteen designs by American architects Robert Stern and Michael Graves, were bought by the TMCA in 1978, but the U.S. sought to impound assets of Iran after the 1979 revolution and the rupture of diplomatic ties following the seizure by Iran of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Iran claimed the artworks in a lawsuit filed two years ago at a tribunal created in The Hague in 1981 under an agreement known as the Algiers Accords.

Consequently, the artworks have recently delivered to a TMCA agent in The Hague, where the tribunal ruled in favor of Iran.

Mollanoruzi said that delivery of the artworks is the outcome of legal challenges launched by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

He said that the artworks, ten of which were created by Graves and the other four by Stern, will be transferred to the country in two or three days.

The artworks were being kept by Stern and Graves, Mollanoruzi said.

Graves, who died in March, was one of the most prominent and prolific American architects of the latter 20th century, and designed over 350 buildings around the world but was perhaps best known for his teakettle and pepper mill, the New York Times reported.

Stern is the dean of the Yale School of Architecture and his works have been exhibited at numerous galleries and universities and are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Centre Pompidou, the Denver Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, his official website wrote.

Photo: InterContinental Hotel in Taba Heights, Egypt was constructed based on a design by American architect Michael Graves between 1998 and 2006.

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