A fire tore through the central exhibition hall of the National Art Gallery in the Russian-backed breakaway Republic of Abkhazia in occupied Georgia on January 21, destroying more than 4,000 paintings.

Dinara Smyr, acting culture minister in Abkhazia, told Apsnypress that the fire happened around 3:38 a.m. local time and that 11 fire crews from the cities of Sukhum, Gudauta, Gulrypsh, and Ochamchira contained the blaze by 7 a.m. The Abkhazia Ministry of Emergency Situations said the fire began on the second floor.

“You could say everything burned down,” she added. “This is an irreparable loss for the national culture of Abkhazia.” Officials later said that only about 200 paintings in the collection survived the fire, including works by Viktor Sheglov, Khuta Avidzba, Sergey Sangalov, Sergey Gabelia, Visarion Tsvizhba, and others.

Smyr said that 300 works destroyed were by Abkhazian painter Alexander Chachba-Shervashidze, who lived during the Russian Empire and was a descendant of the ruler of the Principality of Abkhazia, were destroyed.

Speaking to the BBC, Suram Sakanya, the museum’s director, mourned the loss of a collection that survived a civil war with Georgia in the early 1990s: “We have been gathering this collection since 1963 and it went up in flames in seconds. Such a tragedy for us here in Abkhazia.”

In Abkhazia, the National Art Gallery was ravaged by fire overnight, resulting in the COMPLETE DESTRUCTION of its foundation. Approximately 4,000 artworks were lost in the blaze, with 300 belonging to famous Alexander Shervashidze-Chachba. The inferno originated on the second… pic.twitter.com/eq7z1ngbst

— JAMnews (@JAMnewsCaucasus) January 21, 2024

The principality of Abkhazia was a feudal entity that emerged amid civil wars with the Kingdom of Georgia in the 1400s, ultimately annexed by the Russian Empire. Abkhazia was later an autonomous entity within Soviet Georgia. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, tensions between Abkhazians and Georgians led to a war in which Georgia lost control over most of the territory. It is recognized a sovereign nation by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria, but considered a Russian-occupied territory by the Georgia government.

Diplomatic tensions emerged after the fire, with politicians in Georgia, Russia, and the Abkhazia region each making statements about the cultural loss.

“The fire that destroyed Sokhumi’s National Gallery in occupied Abkhazia is a tragedy for us all. I deplore what is a direct consequence of the neglect of cultural identity both by the de facto leadership and the Russian occupants,” Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said on social media. “I call on the international community to revive its attention to the protection of our cultural heritage in the occupied territories.”

Meanwhile, Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova called the fire a tragedy in a statement on Telegram, reported by the Abkhazian Culture Ministry: “A real tragedy in Sukhum. We are thinking together with our colleagues from Abkhazia [on] how to help.”

The investigative department of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Abkhazia has launched a criminal investigation as investigators seek to determine the cause of the fire.

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