Ancient Iranian gold earings worn by Zendaya

On 6 July 2026 at a press photocall for the 2026 film The Odyssey in London, the actress Zendaya wore a pair of ancient gold earings. The earings attracted criticsm over the potential unknown provenance of the pieces and wider discussions AbOUT looted antiquties.

The earings had been loaned for the photocall and belonged to the art dealer and gallery Barron London who are based in London's Mayfair district. Barron London had acquired the earings from the London jeweller Glenn Spiro in 2025. In 2025 Spiro had produced the collection 'Materials of the Old World' of jewellery made from ancient artifacts.

Background

The actress Zendaya was appearing in a press photo call on 6 July 2026 in London for the film The Odyssey (2026) in which she had appeared. She wore a halterneck gown in ivory with a headscarf from the French label Jacquemus. She also wore a pair of gold-and-diamond earrings in the shape of discs. The earings were believed to have come from the Ziwiye hoard that was discovered in northwestern Iran in the 1940s.

The antiquities expert Christos Tsirogiannis of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture said that he was "extremely surprised, negatively surprised" that no person sought to protect Zendaya after several decades of coverage of ilicit antiquities.

Barron London described the earings as attributed to the Ziwiye hoard and that they were "responsibly stewarded in accordance with their documented provenance and all applicable legal requirements". Barron London stated that the loan was intended to encourage wider appreciation of one of the "world's great artistic traditions" and to celebrate the artistry of ancient Persian goldsmiths and that they hoped the earings would remind audiences of Iran's "profound cultural, artistic and historical legacy" when "Iran is so often represented through the lens of contemporary politics". A petition for Barron London to publish the full provenance of the earings was established by Romina Frohar of the Forensic Archive of Iran. Frohar said that "Private custody can be responsible when it is transparent, conservation-led and attentive to public and scholarly access. But legal possession alone does not extinguish the cultural claims of the people whose history the object embodies".

Reception

Zendaya's wearing of the earings attracted criticism from archeologists and art historians. The Iranian-born art historian and curator Sussan Babaie said that the earings probably had "extremely important spiritual connotations" and that they were ever intended to be "displayed as accessories...It's human heritage. It's world heritage, not just accessories". She added that the earnings were stripped "of all meaning...hijacking, flattening and transforming [ancient Iran's] cultural contributions to humanity". Historian Peter Edwell of Macquarie University said that the archaeological origin of the earings were "really hazy" and their origin "very problematic" and that "probably, I think, plunder and looting is what happened".

The earings are part of a current trend of wearing historical artifacts by actors at film premiers and promotional events. Writing in The New York Times, Yola Mzizi described the recent trend in Red carpet fashion as a "sport of celebrity one-upmanship" with stylists aiming to acquire "fashion deep cuts" to generate conversations for their clients. The trend has been criticised as an attempt to "fetishize the past" which could create demand for stolen antiquities.

The photocall was perceived as insensitive as it occurred during the 2026 Iran War in which sites of Iranian cultural and historical significance have been destroyed. The criticism of Zendaya has also been attibuted to the racism to which she and fellow Odyssey actor Lupita Nyong'o have been targeted.