After over two weeks since the discovery of a reportedly mummified body near the Shah Abdol Azim Shrine in Tehran's Rey County, its fate is still unclear with officials refusing to disclose any data about its current state and location.
Amid widespread coverage of the news in the media, cultural heritage officials who are deemed most eligible to comment on such discoveries had remained silent until recently. Ali Asghar Mounesan, head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, finally broke the silence in a talk to ISNA.
He, however, tried to shift responsibility saying that although ICHHTO is in charge of specialized studies in cultural heritage cases, it should receive a request to offer cooperation.
"We are ready for specialized investigations and are now inquiring into the case to find out the details," he said.
He did not explicitly rule out ICHHTO's responsibility, but called on reporters to ask other entities in charge of the case to learn about the body's whereabouts.
"We haven't seen it yet to begin scientific investigations."
Passing the Buck
Earlier, ICHHTO officials had referred reporters to the director of Tehran's provincial office for any questions about the so-called mummy. This is while Delavar Bozorgnia has said in a recent statement that "it is not ICHHTO's duty and the Ministry of Culture is supposed to make the final decision."
Hedayatollah Jamalipour, the governor of Rey County, takes the credit for the most reluctant stance, as he believes there are more serious issues reporters can cover.
In an evasive statement about the body's location, he said, "As far as I know it has been buried in a proper place but I don't know where. We have no time to pursue the case of a dead body. So many people die every day, we can't check out to find each one of their graves. This corpse is just like any other dead body."
It appears that the unknown decision-maker about the body prefers to keep it secret by refusing to release data or offer documents suggesting the discovery was not of cultural heritage value. About two weeks ago, during construction work near the shrine, eye witnesses claimed to have seen the excavator unearthing an apparently mummified body.
Rumors spread immediately that it belongs to a Pahlavi king whose tomb formerly stood in the place.
The shrine's public relations authorities have dismissed the claims saying that the discovered body is not mummified and there is no evidence indicating to whom it belongs.
Hassan Khalilabadi, head of Cultural Heritage Committee at Tehran City Council, however, made an early comment confirming that it was a mummy and that there are chances it belongs to Reza Shah.
Reza Shah died in exile in Johannesburg in 1944. It is said that his body was brought to Iran four years later and buried in a large tomb in Shahr-e Rey.
