Piguet’s December auction in Geneva offered a fleeting glimpse into the bygone world of well-born and well-bred statesmen of the twentieth century.
Bon Vivant, Gstaad habitué, and Montreux resident Ardeshir Zahedi (1928–2021) was at the forefront of international ...
Piguet’s December auction in Geneva offered a fleeting glimpse into the bygone world of well-born and well-bred statesmen of the twentieth century.
Bon Vivant, Gstaad habitué, and Montreux resident Ardeshir Zahedi (1928–2021) was at the forefront of international diplomacy for decades of the twentieth century. His rich as well as extensive collection, detailed and illustrated in the online auction catalogue below, formerly housed at his residence in Montreux, is a voyage in time across cultures of both Orient and Occident: comprised of paintings, furniture, carpets, porcelain, silver, precious objects, and gifts from heads of state and government. He knew eight American presidents, from Harry Truman (1884–1972) to George Bush, Senior (1924–2018).
At his Villa Les Roses in Montreux, this polyglot and polymath hosted crowned heads, princes, presidents, and heads of state amongst others: including Gstaad habitué and Ancien Roséen, King Fouad II, Egypt’s last monarch; Gstaad habitué Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (1933–2003), former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; Former US President Richard Nixon (1913–1994), Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan; a former President of the Swiss Confederation; the late founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival.
ARDESHIR ZAHEDI
served the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980), a Gstaad habitué and Ancien Roséen, as ambassador in London and twice in Washington, as well as foreign minister; his second term in Washington spanned the last six years of the Shah’s reign, from the oil price surge of 1973–74 to the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Invitations to the Iranian embassy under Zahedi were highly sought after. Statesmen and politicians rubbed shoulders with film stars, entertainers, and socialites, with guests like Henry Kissinger, Andy Warhol, Barbra Streisand, and Frank Sinatra. Zahedi was also seen out on the town with Jacqueline Onassis, Liza Minnelli, and Barbara Walters. In between husbands, he and Elizabeth Taylor were an item.
Zahedi and his wife Princess Shahnaz (Gstaad habituée and Chalet Marie-José pupil) introduced her father the Shah, single after two divorces, to his third wife, Farah Diba.
Princess Shahnaz is the Shah’s first child with his first wife, Princess Fawzia of Egypt (1921–2013) – eldest daughter of King Fuad I of Egypt (1868–1936), first king of Egypt following its independence from Great Britain. They had a daughter Mahnaz, and were divorced in 1964; their daughter survives him.
ALAN NAZAR IPEKIAN
