DUSHANBE, October 20, 2010, Asia-Plus — The issue of return of 166 objects of Tajik cultural relics that are currently held in the branch of Russia’s Institute for Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg will be solved in the near future, Minister of Culture Mirzoshorukh Asrori announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on October 20.
According to him, the issue of gradual return of the cultural relics was discussed recently during his meeting with Russian Minister of Culture Aleksandr Avdeyev in Moscow.
Muzaffar Azizov, the head of the historical and cultural heritage preservation and use department of the Ministry of Culture (MoC), noted that the collection, held in the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Institute for Oriental Studies, included fragments of wall-paintings from ancient Panjakent and Bunjikat, archeological finds from the Hulbuk archeological site, archive of Devashtich, the last ruler of ancient Panjakent, and other cultural relics.
“We cannot yet return these relics, because we do not yet have special place and proper conditions for holding them,” said Azizov, “The relics will be gradually returned to Tajikistan upon completion of construction of a new building for the National Museum.”
He added that part of those cultural relics had previously been returned to Tajikistan and handed over to the Academy of Sciences, but many of them had been damaged because of lack of special conditions for holding them.
