by Ansel Mullins

Nukus, Karakalpakstan - In the storage rooms of the Nukus Museum a team of three do their best to prevent the inevitable decay of Central Asia's greatest and most unique collection of paintings.

The life's work of a passionate collector Igor Savitsky and his loyal team, the collection is a reservoir of Russian and local cultural heritage including a very rare and extensive collection of Russian Avant Garde. Their survival through decades of state repression is a credit to Savitsky. Their preservation today is the mission of the Museum's current director Marinika Babanazarova and the French restoration group Restaurateurs Sans Frontieres.

"This is much more than a world class art museum. The Savitsky [museum] is a resource, a tool for future generations to understand their heritage. In these thousands of canvases is the cultural fingerprint of diverse peoples. It is crucial that we preserve this legacy and the creative spirit of its creator, Igor Savitsky," said Restaurateurs Sans Frontieres Director Pavlos Politis.

In March 2004 Politis and his team executed the documentation phase of a restoration project at the Nukus Museum with the support of Open Society Institute of Uzbekistan and the Friends of Nukus Museum. The team digitally photographed and analyzed the condition of over 50 of the museum's paintings while training the Museum staff on standard documentation methods. Some of the works- including one painting by the famed artist Lyssenko- have never been publicly displayed due to their poor condition.

"The training was a big success," said Babanazarova. "We sincerely hope that RSF's efforts will raise the standards of local restoration in Nukus and throughout Uzbekistan."

In March 2005 RSF will send a team of four canvas restoration specialists to Nukus for the first restoration and training workshop at the Museum. With support from The Christensen Fund, UNESCO Uzbekistan and the British Council Uzbekistan RSF will carry out two such workshops in 2005. Depending on the availability of funds, RSF will extend the project with three more workshops in 2006.

"Of the several thousand paintings more than half require some sort of attention, many canvases are not even stretched onto support, others are grossly deformed by storage conditions. Technically speaking, this project presents some very unusual challenges to our team."

According to RSF restorer Laurence Durand, "The greatest challenge will be to sustain the restoration activity permanently. "Our team could work around the clock for several years and barely put a dent in the needs of that collection. So we put a lot of stock in the training component of the project. The success of this project will be measured not in number of paintings restored during the workshops but in the quality of the training. The future of those paintings depends upon it."