Picasso is hiding in Iran

At some point, it seems we have chewed through our mutual suspicion. We walk down a long hallway, wait at the door of a large freight elevator, and descend into the bowels of the museum. Half a dozen caretakers usher us into a low-ceilinged room with open metal beams and exposed insulation, where hundreds of paintings hang on rolling racks, stacked together vertically along either side of the room.

A glowering portrait of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is the only painting facing out to the room.

Sadeghi nods his head, and the racks are rolled out, one by one. I catch my breath at "Environ de Giverny," a painting I had never dreamed to see in a basement in Tehran. Sadeghi looks on with obvious pleasure at my disorientation.

"I would like to remind you that one-third of this collection has been added since the revolution," he said. "Some of these paintings were in the hands of private collectors, and in the fallout of the revolution, we feared they might go missing, so we painstakingly have assembled them here."

He orders another rack pulled out. There are Picasso and Van Gogh. Then, Chagall's "Family With Cock." They hang askew but secure on the racks, like a coat someone plans to fetch again momentarily.

We make our way through the highlights of the collection and sample the best of the Iranian pieces. Then we smile and take our leave, with much less urgency than our greeting. I repair upstairs, where the women's clothing exhibit continues its run, largely undisturbed by visitors.

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kim.murphy@latimes.com