New Delhi, May 9 -- The artworks are distinctly American - famed pieces in vivid colors wrestling with themes of war, violence, pop culture and commercialism. What's startling is where they're on display: In a museum in the Iranian capital, at a time the two countries are locked in conflict.

While the city's streets are lined with anti-American billboards and posters, Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art opened an exhibit this week of six works by three American Pop artists of the 1960s - Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana and James Rosenquist - mainly chosen for their anti-war themes.

The works come from the museum's large collection of masterpieces of American and European modern art that was acquired by the wife of the former shah in th...