Buryat customs officers donated lithographs of the 19th century to the National Museum of Buryatia
Two sheets from the multi-volume 1853 edition of «Antiquities of the Russian State» section «Armor, weapons, carriages and horse harness have been handed over by Buryat customs officers to the museum fund. The lithographs tried to be illegally exported from Russia.
Ivan Burlaka, acting head of the Buryat customs, Anna Nikitina, First Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Buryatia, Tatyana Boronoeva, Director of the National Museum of Buryatia, took part in the ceremony of transferring the cultural value to the museum’s archive.
The lithographs were discovered and seized during customs control by officers of the customs post of the Kyakhta IACP of the Buryat Customs. Experts confirmed that the illustrations were created more than 100 years ago and are of cultural value. The lithographs were confiscated by court decision.
The experts noted that the lithographs are a part of the scientific work «Antiquities of the Russian State, published by the highest order of Emperor Nicholas I. This publication is a monument of national antiquities, the result of 20 years of work of Professor F.G. Solntsev of the Imperial Academy of Arts. The unique multivolume book was published in 1849-1853 with a circulation of 600 copies.
According to Ivan Burlaki, acting head of the Buryat Customs, individuals can move cultural valuables across the customs border only with the permission of the Ministry of Culture of Russia. In this case, the lithographs were exported without any authorization documents. He noted the importance of keeping cultural values in the homeland and exhibiting them in museums, and not in private collections;
Buryat Customs has been working on the transfer of cultural property since 2010. During this time, the National Museum received paleontological finds, objects and utensils of the XVIII-XIX centuries, money signs from the XIII to XIX centuries.
Synopsis: F. G. Solntsev made numerous trips to ancient Russian towns, monasteries and churches, where he carefully recorded monuments of history and culture.the result of this titanic labor and became the above mentioned edition consisting of 6 compartments – albums which included 508 large-format sheets color chromolithographs of domestic cultural monuments, notebooks text printed material to each of six compartments.
The appearance of this edition is connected with the development of in XIX century so called «artistic archaeology» the founder of which is considered to be the artist F.G. Solntsev (1801-1892)
Evgenia Kurbatova,
press-secretary of the Buryat Customs,
Kurbatovaeg@dvtu.customs.gov.ru, 8 (3012) 289 078