Tanavoli, Parviz
Hand (Brooch/Pendant) , 1976
This object belongs to a small collection of jewelry by Tanavoli that was owned and worn by Abby Grey, who avidly collected his work; she held the jewelry back from her large 1975 gift to the Grey Art Gallery. Following her death in 1983, it entered the NYU Art Collection by bequest. This turquoise-adorned brooch/pendant represents the severed hand of Hazrat Abbas, an early Shiite warrior who sought in the heat of battle to fetch water from the Euphrates and was killed by the enemy.