Andy Warhol’s portrait of the Empress of Iran adorns the cover of a massive new art book in the Paris home of Christie’s auction house. Then the icon herself walks in and her admirers stand in respect. Forty years after the overthrow of the shah and the couple’s flight into exile, Farah Pahlavi is as regal as ever as she accepts the reverence of her former subjects. There also to greet her is her longtime friend, Frédéric Mitterrand, a television arts presenter who served as culture minister for Nicolas Sarkozy. Her Majesty, as the Paris Iranians still call their former queen, is tall and elegant in beige trousers and cream tunic with Persian motifs.

Source: The Times December 14, 2018 23:59 UTC