Christie's Magazine

The Empress and I recounts Stein’s time spent building the collection, citing previously confidential correspondence with artists and dealers, while exploring the bond she formed with the Empress over a shared passion for art.

Town & Country

In the 1970s, former MoMA curator Donna Stein took on an unusual and highly classified project: advising Farah Pahlavi, the queen of Iran. Here, Stein shares the amazing true story of how she helped build one of the world's most important art collections.

Iran Wire

Robert Weinberg

Donna Stein has finally told her extraordinary story in a new book, The Empress and I: a “hybrid,” she calls it, “of autobiography, art history and political history”.

Bloomberg

James Tarmy

A new book by curator Donna Stein details the whirlwind acquisition process that built that greatest collection of modern art you’ve never seen ...Of value to anyone interested in the history of the 20th century art market.

Toronto Star

Deborah Dundas

As much as it’s a glimpse into the art world, it’s also a glimpse into Iran in the 1970s, behind the scenes at the highest echelons, accompanied with photos of Stein and the Empress and the works of art.

New York Times

Elaine Sciolino

The Empress and I tells two interlocking stories: one of a rule-driven, hierarchical, often-dysfunctional bureaucracy that bought Western art at surprisingly reasonable prices for a monarchy flush with oil money; another of the daily life of an unmarried young American woman in Old Regime Tehran.

amNY

Hazel Shahgholi

Stein’s book is an instructive memoir of adventure, the pleasure and power of art and culture, but also of friendship and loss. It is Stein’s hope that these “young, forward-looking Iranians…will continue…to express themselves beyond any limitation or border, east or west.

Architectural Digest

Madeline Luckel

Titled The Empress and I: How an Ancient Empire Collected, Rejected, and Rediscovered Modern Art, the tome makes for a fascinating read for anyone with an interest in art history. But besides offering a chance to learn more about paintings such as Pollock's 1950 Mural on Indian Red Ground, the Skira publication is also a study of one woman's personal and professional journey.

New York Times

Maira Garcia

As an adviser to Queen Farah Pahlavi of Iran, Stein acquired works by Picasso, van Gogh and others for the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, until revolution intervened.

Art Newspaper

Tim Cornwell

Laden with period glamour, political intrigue and eye-catching art.

Tatler

Maya Asha McDonald

Given her trying experience at the centre of Iran’s most ambitious artistic endeavour of the 20th-century, Stein makes no attempt to hide the fact that her book aims to settle some old scores. However, the Empress - for whom Stein claims to have been a ‘confidante’- emerges from the memoir relatively unscathed.