With tickets in hand we recommend going first to Sahebqaranieh, which was built during the Qajar period and used as Nasser-al Din Shah’s harem before later being transformed into Mohammad Reza Shah’s office. It contains a fine collection of paintings and other furnishings, including several colourful Qajar-era works Queen Farah Diba rescued from Shiraz (look for them in the ceilings).
But Sahebqaranieh is most interesting for the insight it affords into the shah’s daily life. Rooms include a basement teahouse, private dental surgery and a bar decorated with Shirazi painted beams. Keep an eye out for the shah’s golden phone and gold-coloured pistols, and for photos displayed in the Ambassador’s Waiting Room; the mixed bunch sees Mao Zedong share space with Pope Paul VI, while Hitler, Queen Elizabeth II, Richard Nixon, Kemal Ataturk and Dwight Eisenhower (who was a guest at the shah’s last wedding), stare out from the past nearby. The custodians will make you join a guided tour – it’s well worth waiting for an English-speaking guide.
Adjoining Sahebqaranieh is the Jahan-Nama Museum & Gallery (Queen’s Private Museum). Two main rooms here are filled with a small but well-displayed example of the eclectic collection of modern and ancient art gathered by Farah Diba, mainly during the 1970s. Works by Warhol, Picasso and Joan Miró share space with Iranian archaeological artefacts and finds from sites in Mexico and Egypt, and rotating exhibits of contemporary Iranian art.
