Stepanakert Offers Proposal to Baku, Awaiting Response: Artsakh Minister of Education

The official Stepanakert has proposed to Baku to exchange Azerbaijani paintings heading to its territory for those remaining in the State Art Museum of Shushi. This was stated by Artsakh's Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports, Lusine Garakhanyan, during a meeting with journalists in Stepanakert, as reported by Sputnik Armenia.

"Since the first Artsakh war, 40 Azerbaijani paintings have come under the control of the Armenian side. For 30 years, the Azerbaijani side did not even attempt to reclaim these artworks. How does this characterize them? Now we have made our proposal, but we have not yet received a response. What can I say? They are a people who do not appreciate or create and preserve culture," said the minister.

Several valuable paintings remain in the Shushi gallery, including works by Martiros Saryan, Jean Garzou, and Jansem. Garakhanyan noted that, aside from the 40 Azerbaijani paintings, Artsakh has nothing else to exchange with Baku.

The proposal from Stepanakert has been conveyed to Baku through Russian peacekeepers. It is noteworthy that the Shushi State Museum of Fine Arts, the History Museum, and the Geological Museum have all come under Baku's control, while the Armenian side managed to evacuate the contents of the carpet and money museums.

According to Garakhanyan, she urged museum directors to evacuate their collections as early as October 19. However, Shushi seemed safe enough to many that not only did they refrain from evacuating, but some even moved precious items into Shushi from other places during those days. Vardan Asatryan, the founder of the Carpet Museum, evacuated the carpets on October 30, while the Central Bank organized the evacuation of the currency museum.

The Art Museum featured works by renowned Armenian artists such as Martiros Saryan, Minas Avetisyan, Garzou, Edgar Shahinyan, Rudolf Khachatryan, Jansem, Hakob Hakobyants, Armine Kalents, and Russian masters Pavel Kuznetsov, Dmitri Vilinski, David Burliuk, Dmitri Zhilyinsky, Anatoly Safokhin, Taras Shevchenko, Dmitri Plavinski, and more.

The Geological Museum's fund included 480 types of minerals and organic fossil remains, with samples from 47 countries around the world. Among them were ancient specimens—one over 1.2 billion years old, with the oldest minerals discovered in Artsakh being 146 million years old.

The Shushi History Museum showcased everything related to Shushi from ancient times, including exhibits found during excavations, the city's daily life, the interior of the home of wealthy benefactor Tadevos Tamiryants, various carpets, silver jewelry, furniture, and publications produced in Shushi, among other items.