Minas Avetisyan's frescos 'secretly' shipped to Yerevan

Several frescos by 20th century famous Armenian artist Minas Avetisyan have been secretly shipped to Yerevan from the second largest town of Gyumri.

Levon Barseghyan, the president of the Gyumri-based journalists' club Asparez, told Tert.am the artist's son and a civil society group dealing with the protection of cultural heritage were discussing yesterday the recent dispute over the frescos, unaware that they were already on their way to the capital city.

"While the discussion was going on at the ministry, an employee enthusiastically broke into [the discussion hall] and said the frescos had successfully reached Yerevan," he said.

Barsegyan noted that the civil society group had several times met with Culture Ministry officials, and after negotiations, they had agreed to remove several frescos from the walls of two plants and keep them in a storehouse until further negotiations finally determined their fate.

"But the Ministry let down the residents of Gyumri," Barseghyan said.