3 October 2007
A recent UNESCO evaluation of more than 30 museums from the Sughd, Dushanbe, Khatlon and Pamir districts has discovered rich ethnographic and archaeological collections, as well as interesting materials on the Tajik civil war. The inventory is part of UNESCO's worldwide programme for the Preservation of Endangered Movable Cultural Properties and Museum Development.
The evaluation was carried out by two internationally renowned experts from the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), St Petersburg, Russia.Ms Julia Kupina, Deputy-Director of the Kunstkamera Museum, and Mr Pogorelskiy, Chief Curator, compiled statistic information on the collections hosted by the museums, evaluated the state of conservation of the objects stored by the museums and photo-documented the most valuable items with the help of the professional photograph of the Kunstkamera museum.
“This initiative, carried out in cooperation with the Tajik Ministry of Culture, the French NGO ACTED and the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), will contribute to raising awareness on the museum heritage of Tajikistan”, says Francois Langlois, Assistant programme Specialist for Culture at the UNESCO Almaty Office.
A tri-lingual (Tajik, Russian and English) on-line inventory of the museums will be created and hosted by the Kunstkamera Museum, and a paper version will be distributed to museums and other key institutions in Tajikistan.
The information collected will also contribute to identifying priority areas for possible cooperation, and foster networking between museums. It will also represent a resource contribution to the Tajik Ministry of Culture for the definition of future museum policies.
Museums represent an essential tool in protecting and promoting cultural diversity and are, as such, one of UNESCO’s main priorities in the field of culture.
Permanent link: http://en.unesco.kz/unesco-maps-museum-heritage-of-tajikistan