TEHRAN - Seyed Gholamreza Eslami, the assistant director of the Art Academy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, announced that the Miniature and Drawing Center has been established in Tabriz beside the mausoleum of Kamaleddin Behzad (died 1535). Behzad was a painter whose work had a profound influence on later generations of Islamic painters. Eslami said, "The project is based on a recommendation by the International Congress on Kamaleddin Behzad in Bilankooh Shahr of Tabriz."

He said that Behzad created hundreds of precious art works and called him the father of art and drawing in Tabriz. Sadly, most of his works are now in museums in Asia, Europe and the United States. Some of these works are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The International Congress on Kamaleddin Behzad will be held in Tabriz in late autumn 2002 with the cooperation of UNESCO.