This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Renowned Iranian artist Khosrow Hassanzadeh has reportedly died from bootleg alcohol poisoning. He was 60.
Hassanzadeh died on July 2 at a Tehran hospital, where he had been in a coma for nearly a week.
“With deep sorrow and disbelief, we have learned that the esteemed artist, painter, and member of the Association of Iranian Painters, Khosrow Hassanzadeh, has passed away,” the Association of Iranian Painters said in a statement on July 2.
Reports said Hassanzadeh had been hospitalized after drinking “counterfeit alcohol.”
Born in Tehran in 1963 in a working-class family, Hassanzadeh studied painting at the Tehran University of Art. He was mentored by prominent painter, graphist, and art curator Aydin Aghdashloo.
Hassanzadeh was a veteran of the 1980-88 Iran/Iraq War who had created some of his work based on his experience and memories of war.
Hassanzadeh’s paintings have been showcased in museums around the world, including the British Museum, the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran.
His death comes amid a series of cases of fatal alcohol poisonings in the Islamic republic, where drinking alcohol has been banned since the 1979 revolution and punishable by floggings and cash fines. Despite the ban, many Iranians drink foreign and homemade alcoholic beverages that are available on the black market.
Seventeen people died from alcohol poisoning in Karaj near the Iranian capital in recent weeks. Nearly 200 people were hospitalized after drinking bootleg alcohol that was believed to contain methanol.
Abbas Masjedi Arani, the head of Iran’s Forensic Medicine Organization, said last month that 644 people had died from alcohol poisoning during the past Iranian year, which ends on March 20. He said that was a 30 percent increase compared with the previous year.
