YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. A fresco by one of the greatest Armenian painters Minas Avetisyan is now on the verge of becoming a victim of inaction.

The fresco, titled Night, is still located in its original place – a wall of a presently defunct factory in Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city.

In Soviet times the authorities would hire artists to paint on the walls of various factories or other similar facilities in what appears to have been an effort of promoting culture.

Now, Minas Avetisyan’s son – Arman Avetisyan, the director of the Minas Avetisyan Museum in Jajur (hometown of Minas), is trying to save his father’s work.

Arman Avetisyan and Azat Tovmasyan, director of the Minas Avetisyan Cultural Charity Foundation, told a news conference today that they are currently making estimates to find out how much money is needed to save the fresco.

They said they plan to request the Ministry of Culture to step in and support.

Moreover, the fresco is in the list of monuments under state protection.

“Within the framework of a project of the culture ministry eight frescos by Minas were reinforced and saved. Only Night was remaining, which was in the poorest condition,” Arman Avetisyan said, adding that the sponsors dealing with the restoration works were preferring to work with the least damaged frescos first.

Minas painted Night in 1973, two years before his death.

“There are two frescos in this factory. Night and Day, which are facing one another. It is a very interesting solution, unfortunately Day was not saved,” Avetisyan said.

“Restoring Night will require probably around 20-25,000 dollars,” he said.

Avetisyan also told the story how the other fresco got lost.

He said that in 1988 the then-culture ministry had a restoration lab. “When Armenian experts had cut and removed a part of the Night fresco to restore it, they got notified that the laboratory has been shut down, and that their work can no longer be funded. The experts left the already removed parts of the fresco under the wall and departed for Yerevan to find out what happened. Upon their return, they saw that these parts had been destroyed. They had managed to already remove entirely the Day fresco, and that’s why it has almost not been preserved”.

Avetisyan said there are two other frescos by Minas in different parts of Armenia that are also in poor conditions.

He suggested creating a Monumental Arts Museum for the preservation of frescos.

Minas Avetisyan, known simply as Minas, was born in 1928 in the village of Jajur, Armenia.

He died at the age of 46 after being hit by a speeding car. Some speculated he was murdered.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan