About 4,000 paintings need to be checked in the Museum of Fine Arts in Bishkek. The Minister of Culture, Information and Tourism of Kyrgyzstan Azamat Zhamankulov said at a press conference.
He noted that the commission has already checked 250 works in Paintings category. There are about 4,000 paintings in it. The second stage will begin in September.
«Two paintings that are considered to be copies have been detected as of today. But the final decision must be made by specialists. We turned to more or less authoritative museums with a request to send their experts. So far, the materials of the commission have been sent to law enforcement agencies,» said the minister.
He added that the Ministry of Culture was studying the issue of payment to specialists. «If these are experts from Russian museums, we may be able to do this within the framework of our cooperation,» said Azamat Zhamankulov.
According to preliminary data, such work may cost from $ 10,000.
The head of the Ministry of Culture stressed that the ministry planned to make an inventory in all museums of the country.
«There are over 18,000 exhibits only in the museum named after Gapar Aitiev. Everything must be inventoried and digitized. We initiated the creation of a state electronic catalog of the main museums of Bishkek this year,» he explained.
Recall, the former director of the museum Yuristanbek Shygaev took away two originals of paintings donated in Soviet times to Kyrgyzstan by the Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum. The canvases — one by Nikolai Sverchkov «Horse and Dog», the other — «Portrait of Bakunin» — are priceless and are the property of the people and the state. Yuristanbek Shygaev damaged them during scanning.
