"Picasso's plate" disappears in Abkhazia; former minister of culture suspected of theft
Picasso’s plate disappearance
Abkhazian museum workers discovered that a valuable exhibit has gone missing — “Picasso’s plate”. Former Minister of Culture Gudis Agrbe is suspected of the theft.
The plate, with a painting by the famous artist Pablo Picasso, belonged to the State House-Museum of the founder of Abkhaz literature, Dmitry Guliy. A few years ago, for security reasons the museum management gave the plate and two paintings by French artist Fernand Léger to the National Bank of Abkhazia for safekeeping. It now turns out that in February 2021, former Minister of Culture of Abkhazia, Gudisa Agrba, took them from the bank without informing museum management.
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The minister took the plate and paintings for examination, Deputy Minister Dinara Smyr, who accompanied him during that visit to the National Bank, says. A few months later Agrba was arrested on suspicion of embezzling a large sum from the budget, and now the court must decide his fate.
Svetlana Korsaya, director of the house-museum of Dmitry Guliy, believed until recently that the exhibits were still stored in the National Bank. But when rumors spread that the Picasso plate was up for sale by an unknown party, she became worried. Korsaya turned to the National Bank and was informed that Agrba had taken the exhibits. Léger’s paintings were eventually found in a cabinet in the Ministry of Culture. But the plate is gone.
Now the state security service is engaged in a search for the item. Museum management hopes that Picasso’s plate is still in Abkhazia.
Picasso’s plate disappearance
Previously, Picasso’s plate belonged to the famous Soviet poet Konstantin Simonov. He was friends with the Gulia family for many years and, on his deathbed, bequeathed to his house-museum a small dacha in Agudzero (a village in Abkhazia) with all its contents, including a plate painted by Picasso and paintings by Léger. Until the Georgian-Abkhazian war they remained at the dacha in Agudzero, which was turned into a branch of the Dmitry Guliy Museum. During the war the keepers managed to hide the plate and paintings from marauders, and later they were transferred to the head building of the Dmitry Guliy Museum in Sukhum.
Here is what Inal Khashig, editor of JAMnews in Abkhazia and editor of the Chegemskaya Pravda newspaper, thinks of the incident:
“During the war two old women, the curators of the museum, risked their lives to hide these items. And I am sure that these noble ladies, who were probably in great need at the time, did not even think of taking advantage of the situation and keeping them for themselves or selling them. They kept both the Picasso plate and the paintings by Fernand Léger, and all of it was returned to the museum after the war.
Now one can only experience shame seeing how the official appointed to manage the culture of Abkhazia, instead of protecting the cultural heritage of the country, has become a defendant in the case of the missing plate. And to be honest, I’m not surprised. Former Minister of Culture Gudisa Agrba is involved in another criminal case — the purchase of equipment many times more expensive than the cost. They say he paid off his gambling debts.
What surprises me is something else — what was the government guided by when they appointed a person with greedy habits and without any experience in the field of culture to such a position?”
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Picasso’s plate disappearance
