Uzbekistan: $357 million worth of museum treasures were stolen
3,000 unique treasures have been stolen from 14 museums in the country over the past 30 years.
Inventory and possible compensation for damage to cultural heritage sites will start only now. This will be done by the Prosecutor General’s Office with specialists from the Ministries of Tourism and Cultural Heritage. The value of the stolen property is estimated at over 4 trillion sums. This was stated by President Mirziyoyev at a meeting on the development of tourism in the country.
Many exhibits in the regions were replaced by copies. A large-scale forgery of material cultural heritage was discovered in the State Museum in Bukhara (81 pieces of art worth 31.5 billion sums). In the state museum fund “Ichan-Kaly” in Khiva, 101 museum items are not authentic.
“The system of theft, irresponsibility and lack of punishment for the result, which has taken root in the country, has a detrimental effect on the restoration of ancient buildings,” the ACCA expert notes.
In Bukhara, due to negligence and unprofessionalism during work 18 years ago, on March 14 this year, a part of the wall (near the fortress gates of Talipoch of the 16th century) collapsed. Its restoration will cost almost a million dollars.
