Farhad Hakimzadeh, the author and bibliophile who was convicted of theft from the British Library and Oxford’s Bodleian Library, has now resigned as a trustee of the Iran Heritage Foundation. In our December issue (p4), we pointed out that he was still a trustee of the charity. Hakimzadeh’s resignation was registered on 4 December, the day after our report appeared. The Iran Heritage Foundation is sponsoring the British Museum’s “Shah ‘Abbas” exhibition, which opens on 19 February. On 16 January, Hakimzadeh was sentenced to two years in prison, following an earlier court appearance when he had pleaded guilty to 14 charges of theft from the two libraries. It has also emerged that Hakimzadeh had stolen 94 items from the Royal Asiatic Society in 1998.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Book thief resigns as Iran Foundation trustee'