A famous Iranian artist reportedly died of alcohol poisoning

Famous Iranian artist Khosrow Hasanzadeh has reportedly died of alcohol poisoning. He was 60 years old.

Hasanzadeh died on July 2 in a hospital in Tehran, where he had been in a coma for almost a week.

"It is with deep sadness and disbelief that we learned that the respected artist, painter and member of the Association of Iranian Painters Khosrow Hasanzadeh has died," the Association of Iranian Painters said in a statement on July 2.

Reports said Hasanzadeh was hospitalized after drinking "adulterated alcohol."

Born in Tehran in 1963 to a working-class family, Hasanzadeh studied painting at the Tehran University of Art. His mentor was the prominent painter, printmaker and art curator Aydin Aghdashlo.

Hasanzadeh was a veteran of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. who created some of his works based on his experiences and memories of the war.

Hasanzadeh's paintings have been exhibited in museums around the world, including the British Museum, the Los Angeles State Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran.

His death comes amid a spate of fatal alcohol poisoning cases in the Islamic Republic, where drinking alcohol has been banned since the 1979 revolution and is punishable by whipping and fines.

Despite the ban, many Iranians drink foreign and domestic alcoholic beverages available on the black market.

Seventeen people have died from alcohol poisoning in Karaj, near the Iranian capital, in recent weeks. Nearly 200 people were hospitalized after drinking alcohol believed to contain methanol.

Abbas Masjedi Arani, head of Iran's Organization for Forensic Medicine, said last month that 644 people died of alcohol poisoning during the past Iranian year, which ends on March 20. He said it was a 30 percent increase over the previous year.