"Kuindzhi case" possibility in Ufa: Nesterov’s museum tells about paintings protection

UFA, 29 January 2019. /Bashinform News Agency, Rozaliya Valeeva/ translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.

The paintings in the Mikhail Nesterov’s Bashkir State Art Museum are under the protection of museum attendants, surveillance cameras and a security guard at the entrance to the museum. The director of the museum, Ayrat Teregulov, informed the Bashinform News Agency.

Recall that in the evening of January 27 the painting by Arkhip Kuindzhi “Ai-Petri. Crimea" disappeared from the Tretyakov Gallery. The Ministry of Internal Affairs distributed the recordings from surveillance cameras, which showed how a man removes the canvas from the wall and leaves. However, no one was trying to stop him.

“Paintings in our museum are not hung on hooks, but on ropes, it is difficult to remove them”, explained the director of the Bashkir State Art Museum, Ayrat Teregulov.

“Special equipment is used for separate exhibitions in our museum. For example, the exhibition “Arsenal of Russian Tsars and Emperors” from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums is currently on display in hall 11. For the originals, special display cases with three degrees of protection are used. They prevent opening and other damages. They were specially ordered in Germany and after the exhibition is closed in Ufa, the equipment will be used for other expositions.”

The chief curator of the Bashkir State Art Museum, Valentina Sorokina, refused to disclose exactly which works by Arkhip Kuindzhi are kept in the museum’s collections, saying that it was not in the interests of the museum. However, we managed to find out from free sources that this is “The Rock” (paper, oil) 17*11.