The Matenadaran Institute of Ancient Manuscripts - known simply as Matenadaran - contains some of the most important manuscripts in the world. However, some of the most fragile manuscripts may be in danger.
Eleven activists of art and science have sent an open letter to the President Robert Kocharyan with an appeal to ban sending valued illustrated Armenian parchment manuscripts for exhibition in France.
“These are treasures that are untouchable; they should not be transported, exposed to temperature changes, should not be exposed to unjustified risks, and the government of the Republic of Armenia is not competent to make such a decision, because those treasures belong to the Armenian nation, so exporting them from Armenia means risking their existence,” says Levon Chookaszyan, the head of the Yerevan State University UNESCO Chair of the History of Armenian Art.
“It was a miracle the manuscripts have survived 1700 years and have lived up to our days. We don’t have the right to endanger them,” he says.
They have good reason to worry: the same article mentions that works by Arshil Gorky were lost in a plane crash and paintings by Martiros Saryan burned on a ship.
Why not just send them reproductions?
Source:
ArmeniaNow
