120 Million Dram Cultural Values Disappear from the National Gallery of Armenia

According to the Office of the General Prosecutor of Armenia, it has been revealed through investigations conducted by the State Interests Protection Division that the State Non-Commercial Organization (SNCO) of the Ministry of Culture, the 'Exhibition Center,' was reorganized in the form of merger with the SNCO 'National Gallery of Armenia' based on point 5 of the government decision No. 1204-N dated November 24, 2016.

Furthermore, under point 11, sub-point 1 of the same decision, the Minister of Culture was instructed to ensure the execution of property handover-acceptance works for the aforementioned SNCOs, as well as to approve the inventory of the property, its value, the merger contracts, and the transfer acts.

Based on this government decision, a commission was created by the Minister of Culture on December 7, 2016, and the director of the 'National Gallery of Armenia' on January 21, 2017, to carry out the handover-acceptance work for the property transferred to the 'Exhibition Center' SNCO; however, these works were not implemented.

The investigation also revealed that an inventory of museum items in the funds of the 'Exhibition Center' SNCO had never been conducted, despite the legal requirement to prepare an inventory of assets and liabilities before drafting annual financial reports.

As a result of the verification of the existence of museum objects in the funds of the 'Exhibition Center' SNCO carried out at the request of the General Prosecutor’s Office in 2018-2019, it was discovered that 626 cultural values were missing, including paintings, tapestries, graphic works, sculptures, and more, with a total value of 120,250,000 AMD. Among these are two paintings of significant artistic value: a painting named 'Hay Philharmonic Hall' worth 60,000,000 AMD attributed to Martiros Saryan, and another painting titled 'Renaissance' valued at 2,000,000 AMD belonging to H. Zardaryan.

Thus, due to the improper performance of their duties by the relevant officials of the Ministry of Culture and the 'Exhibition Center' SNCO, severe damage was inflicted on the legitimate interests of the state, making it impossible to ascertain the absence of particularly large cultural values with important artistic significance that are on the balance sheet of the SNCO and to take measures for their recovery.

Considering that the recorded violations manifest features of theft of particularly large amounts, the appropriation of items or documents of historical, artistic, or cultural particular value, and the criminal characteristics of causing severe consequences through negligence by officials who fail to perform their duties, a criminal case has been initiated under Parts 3 of Article 177, Part 1 of Article 180, and Part 2 of Article 315 of the Criminal Code of Armenia in the State Interests Protection Division of the General Prosecutor’s Office.

The investigation of the criminal case has been entrusted to the Investigative Committee of Armenia.