Support A Fundamentalist Regime, Buy an Artefact or Two...

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The London-based Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS) is not terribly enthused about the 'Iran Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation', the state department responsible for the protrection of the heritage:

Since March 2009, Iranian archaeologists are banned giving interviews or reveal any information about the ICHTHO or the status of Iranian archaeology. By implementing such a ban the theocratic-totalitarian regime has closed the only reliable avenue for obtaining the accurate information about the status of the archaeological discoveries and the cultural treasures recovered from the sites. By some reports, the number of priceless artefacts passed to the Iranian museums by ICHTHO, especially those made of precious metals recovered from the sites have been fallen drastically. The illicit antiquities trade and selling Iranian historical relics to the European markets and private collectors worldwide has become one of the most lucrative revenues for the ruling clerics and their families. Since the rise of the Islamic Regime to power in 1979, not only the smuggling and looting of Iranian art and antiquity, but a deliberate destruction, mainly Iran’s pre-Islamic heritage have been systematic and widespread. These destructions have been increased since the appointment of Mahmood Ahmadinajad as the president by the Ali Khamanei, the regime's Spiritual Leader.

So would you buy an artefact from Iran, whether it had been imported legally or illegally? Does the money go to some poor peasant farmer "subsistence digging", or to "the ruling clerics and their families" and the international dealers trading with them?

Or is this another of those pieces of anti-Iran propaganda we hear so much these days?