Fwd: Dismissal of Marinika Babanazarova, Savitsky Museum

Dear all,

I have just received this very serious news.  I have myself visited this remarkable museum, which includes one of the most remarkable collections of Russian avant-garde art in the world, and I have met Marinika several times.  Needless to say, she is someone of outstanding courage and integrity.

If you want to read a little more about the Savitsky museum and can access the Times Literary Supplement archive, this article of mine was published on 26 November, 2004.
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/reviews/arts_and_commentary/article733270.ece

Please, if you know anyone of influence in Uzbekistan, or in the international art world, pass on this information.

All the best,   Robert Chandler

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Hine House <[email protected]>
To: Sue Richardson <[email protected]> 
Sent: Tuesday, 25 August 2015, 14:34
Subject: Dismissal of Marinika Babanazarova, Savitsky Museum

First of all our apologies for this general letter but we are working flat-out on raising awareness of this issue and simply do not have the time to send individual letters.
Last night we received the sad news that our good friend Marinika Babanazarova has been dismissed from her position as Director of the Qaraqalpaq Museum of Arts named after Savitsky. The pretext for this was an anonymous letter supposedly written by the “guardians of the fund” (fund means archive/reserve collection) alleging among other things that she ‘may’ have stolen paintings and replaced them with copies.
This is utter nonsense! Marinika is one of the most honest and dedicated people we have ever met. She was handpicked as his successor by the founder of the museum I V Savitsky, and has worked there tirelessly for 31 years. She has continually fought the museum’s corner and succeeded in bringing its collection to the attention of the outside world, much to the chagrin of the authorities in Uzbekistan. Although her dismissal paper was signed by the Minister of Culture and Sport of the Qaraqalpaq Autonomous Republic, M Aytniyazov, it would definitely not have happened without the agreement of Tashkent.
We first met Marinika in 1996. We made many trips to Qaraqalpaqstan over the years conducting research for our book Qaraqalpaqs of the Aral Delta, published by Prestel in 2012. We witnessed for ourselves the high level of security for all of the museum collection. Guards checked the contents of our bags, we were never left alone with the artefacts, and the curators put a fresh wax seal over the lock each evening. It was clear to us that Marinika was scrupulous about this, as she knew the authorities were always looking for a pretext to cause trouble for the museum.
This is the politics of envy. The more praise and awards Marinika gained, the more difficult her position became. The Uzbek authorities do not like to see attention focussed on the Qaraqalpaqs as we know to our cost - we were not granted a visa to return once they knew we were writing a book celebrating Qaraqalpaq art and culture.
We have feared this outcome for many years and are not surprised at what has happened, just at the timing as it is so close to the celebrations of the centenary of Savitsky. There is a real danger that this precious collection is moved “for its own safety” from Qaraqalpaqstan to Tashkent. Some of it may go to museums but we suspect a lot more will quietly “disappear”.
Many of the staff at the museum have worked there for decades. This is more than a team – it is a family. Like all good families they have rallied around their head. A letter in support of Marinika, signed by the staff has been sent to the Minister of Culture and Sport of Uzbekistan. They have taken an enormous risk in doing this and we applaud their bravery.
My Russian is rusty but I have attempted to translate their letter and attach it below. The full papers (in Russian and Qaraqalpaq) can be found on the Facebook site of the museum here:- https://www.facebook.com/SavitskyKarakalpakstanArtMuseum?fref=ts


ACTION NEEDED! Please share this information as widely as possible. We have already written to the British Ambassador in Tashkent and ask others to write to their Ambassadors too. The German Embassy gave a lot of support to the museum so if any German friends could write to their Ambassador that would be useful. We have written to various news outlets here in the UK but would appreciate any help in other countries. Let your friends in the museum, art, rug and textile, and archaeological world know about this scandal.


TEXT OF LETTER FROM MUSEUM STAFF

Dear Bahodir Madzhitovich,

The staff of the Museum of Arts named after Savitsky are deeply outraged by the slanderous letter published in the foreign media. All the facts stated in this letter are untrue. The people who wrote it, cynically and shamelessly defiled the good name of our leader - Marinika Babanazarova, desecrated the memory of her husband Damir Babanazarov, and grossly misrepresented the facts of the inventory checks. Moreover, who gave the author of this vile lie the right to write a letter hiding behind "on behalf of the guardians" of the funds of the museum named after I. V. Savitsky? We, the keepers of the funds and the entire staff of the museum, claim that M. M. Babanazarova is a worthy successor to I. V. Savitsky, who preserved the priceless art collection in its entirety and, Savitsky museum's collection passed into the hands of the daughter of the man who helped Savitsky almost from the first days of his stay in the land of Karakalpakstan - Academician Marat Nurmukhamedova. M. M. Babanazarova is the granddaughter of the first president of Karakalpakia -  Koptleu Nurmukhamedov. Now judge for yourself whether the offspring of a  true patriot of the Karakalpak land could afford to stoop in order to sell what belongs to its people, the homeland of her ancestors? For her, it would be to betray the memory of the founder of the museum – I. V. Savitsky.

The keepers of the museum with full confidence take responsibility to assert that the entire collection is intact.

According to the instructions on registration and storage, each of the 6 museum funds is  designated to a particular custodian who is liable for the fund entrusted to him for storage. At the same time the Director of the museum does not have access to any of the funds. The same applies to the expositions. There have been no cases of violation of this right by the Director - the expositions are sealed nightly by the chief curator or the Fund's custodian.

The museum staff in no way doubt the decency of the Director, Marinika Babanazarova. At the head of the team are people who have worked with I. V. Savitsky for many years and have worked hard to bring the huge collection collected by him in order. There is the belief, that there are people that it benefits to discredit the good name of the Director of the museum and its staff now, when the collection of the Museum of Arts named after Savitsky gained world fame.

The museum staff ask the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan to deal with the situation as follows:-

1: Set the identity of the author of the defamatory letter.
2: Make the slanderer accountable.
3: Speaking in the media denied.
4: Arrange an investigation into the violation of procedures for checking the inventory of museums and help in the organization of the expert committee for the proceedings in the charge of the museum in the substitution and stealing of artefacts from the museum's collection.




Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD




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