ID :
128768
Sun, 06/20/2010 - 08:00
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http://m.oananews.org//node/128768
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Government to return to Church its buildings, not museum artifacts.
MOSCOW, June 19 (By Itar-Tass World Service writer Lyudmila
Alexandrova) -- The Russian government has submitted to the State Duma its latest version of the bill On the Handover to Religious Organizations of Religious Properties Currently Owned by the State or Municipal Authorities.
The co-authors of this document have taken into account strong public
protests against the idea of wholesale and indiscriminate handover of
museum items to religious organizations, first and foremost, the Russian
Orthodox Church. The new version of the bill says that it does not apply
to museum items and collections, as well as documents found in the state
archives and libraries. Yet, experts say there are quite a few
controversies legislators will have to discuss.
Protests against the return of religious artifacts, including those
from museum collections, to the Church were voiced by museum specialists,
restorers and science and culture workers - holy shrines will be holy
shrines, but they must not be allowed to leave the museum, if that may
threaten their integrity. At the beginning of March the critics addressed
Patriarch Kirill, of Moscow and All Russia, with an open letter to urge
the head of the Russian Orthodox Church not to yield to the temptation of
regaining possession of precious museum funds.
Earlier, 150 staff members of Russia's leading museums dispatched a
message to President Dmitry Medvedev to ask him to refrain from handing
over to the Russian Orthodox Church religious monuments from museum funds.
"The transfer of old churches with frescos and icons, as well as icons
and precious church utensils, from museum funds into everyday use will
remove them from the context of society's cultural life and may result in
their eventual loss," the message said.
As an example restorers and historians quoted a number of examples of
how historical monuments were lost due to "trivial things - moisture,
draughts and soot": Andrei Rublev's frescoes inside the Cathedral of the
Dormition in Vladimir and the Cathedral of the Dormition in Zvenigorod.
An emotional discussion of the problem followed in the media and in
the Public Chamber (a sort of popular parliament created at the Kremlin's
initiative). As a result the new wording of the bill the government has
drafted has incorporated all these demands.
As Deputy Economic Development Minister Igor Manylov told the
government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta in an interview published on Friday,
the issue in focus is not that of museum articles or collections, but of
buildings first and foremost.
At the same time, as the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta says, there remains
an open question of monuments on the world heritage list of the United
Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization UNESCO, and some
very special sites, such as the Cathedral of St. Basil (the Cathedral of
the Virgin Protectress) in Moscow's Red Square, and the cathedrals of the
Moscow Kremlin. Now they can be used for church services only by special
arrangement with the museums of the Moscow Kremlin.
There is no list of buildings that cannot be handed over to religious
organizations by virtue of their status of a national asset or UNESCO
heritage, but there is a general rule covering this class of sites,
Manylov said.
It is expected that the issue will be discussed by the committee on
culture, which will certainly try to make monuments of world importance
immune to the operation of this bill. Otherwise the government will have
to share the territory of the Kremlin with the Church.
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin has said the Church will keep pressing for
a chance to use Moscow's particularly precious monuments on a more solid
basis than just "a good relationship with the museum authorities."
As for compensations for the losses museums or other organizations may
sustain in case they have to return the buildings they take up now to the
Church, Manylov said "there is the intention to draw up a special plan
that would guarantee the entity that has the building now to get adequate
accommodation elsewhere." Before the building in question has been vacated
its handover to religious organizations will be impossible.
If this or that museum has no alternative building, then it will be
necessary to either provide it with alternative accommodation, or finance
repairs, or put up a new building in the coming years. The sites in
question can change hands no earlier than six years after the religious
organizations that want to have them have filed applications.
Experts warn that the clause related to the handover to religious
organizations of buildings that are part and parcel of the housing stock
is fraught with a risk of litigations.
"Why has the Russian Orthodox Church stepped up its demands for
regaining property rights to the assets that are already in its use on
disinterested and open-ended terms?" the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta asked
in a commentary about last year's round table discussion in the State Duma
on the future of church assets. "The church needs funds. Part of the
assets that are not meant for religious needs proper might be leased. The
Moscow Patriarchate's legal adviser, Kseniya Chernega, made a very
unequivocal statement to that effect. However, the current legislation
prohibits anyone who uses an asset on open-ended and disinterested terms
to have any commercial relations with leasers. In the meantime, no such
ban applies to a full-fledged proprietor.
-0-str
Alexandrova) -- The Russian government has submitted to the State Duma its latest version of the bill On the Handover to Religious Organizations of Religious Properties Currently Owned by the State or Municipal Authorities.
The co-authors of this document have taken into account strong public
protests against the idea of wholesale and indiscriminate handover of
museum items to religious organizations, first and foremost, the Russian
Orthodox Church. The new version of the bill says that it does not apply
to museum items and collections, as well as documents found in the state
archives and libraries. Yet, experts say there are quite a few
controversies legislators will have to discuss.
Protests against the return of religious artifacts, including those
from museum collections, to the Church were voiced by museum specialists,
restorers and science and culture workers - holy shrines will be holy
shrines, but they must not be allowed to leave the museum, if that may
threaten their integrity. At the beginning of March the critics addressed
Patriarch Kirill, of Moscow and All Russia, with an open letter to urge
the head of the Russian Orthodox Church not to yield to the temptation of
regaining possession of precious museum funds.
Earlier, 150 staff members of Russia's leading museums dispatched a
message to President Dmitry Medvedev to ask him to refrain from handing
over to the Russian Orthodox Church religious monuments from museum funds.
"The transfer of old churches with frescos and icons, as well as icons
and precious church utensils, from museum funds into everyday use will
remove them from the context of society's cultural life and may result in
their eventual loss," the message said.
As an example restorers and historians quoted a number of examples of
how historical monuments were lost due to "trivial things - moisture,
draughts and soot": Andrei Rublev's frescoes inside the Cathedral of the
Dormition in Vladimir and the Cathedral of the Dormition in Zvenigorod.
An emotional discussion of the problem followed in the media and in
the Public Chamber (a sort of popular parliament created at the Kremlin's
initiative). As a result the new wording of the bill the government has
drafted has incorporated all these demands.
As Deputy Economic Development Minister Igor Manylov told the
government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta in an interview published on Friday,
the issue in focus is not that of museum articles or collections, but of
buildings first and foremost.
At the same time, as the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta says, there remains
an open question of monuments on the world heritage list of the United
Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization UNESCO, and some
very special sites, such as the Cathedral of St. Basil (the Cathedral of
the Virgin Protectress) in Moscow's Red Square, and the cathedrals of the
Moscow Kremlin. Now they can be used for church services only by special
arrangement with the museums of the Moscow Kremlin.
There is no list of buildings that cannot be handed over to religious
organizations by virtue of their status of a national asset or UNESCO
heritage, but there is a general rule covering this class of sites,
Manylov said.
It is expected that the issue will be discussed by the committee on
culture, which will certainly try to make monuments of world importance
immune to the operation of this bill. Otherwise the government will have
to share the territory of the Kremlin with the Church.
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin has said the Church will keep pressing for
a chance to use Moscow's particularly precious monuments on a more solid
basis than just "a good relationship with the museum authorities."
As for compensations for the losses museums or other organizations may
sustain in case they have to return the buildings they take up now to the
Church, Manylov said "there is the intention to draw up a special plan
that would guarantee the entity that has the building now to get adequate
accommodation elsewhere." Before the building in question has been vacated
its handover to religious organizations will be impossible.
If this or that museum has no alternative building, then it will be
necessary to either provide it with alternative accommodation, or finance
repairs, or put up a new building in the coming years. The sites in
question can change hands no earlier than six years after the religious
organizations that want to have them have filed applications.
Experts warn that the clause related to the handover to religious
organizations of buildings that are part and parcel of the housing stock
is fraught with a risk of litigations.
"Why has the Russian Orthodox Church stepped up its demands for
regaining property rights to the assets that are already in its use on
disinterested and open-ended terms?" the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta asked
in a commentary about last year's round table discussion in the State Duma
on the future of church assets. "The church needs funds. Part of the
assets that are not meant for religious needs proper might be leased. The
Moscow Patriarchate's legal adviser, Kseniya Chernega, made a very
unequivocal statement to that effect. However, the current legislation
prohibits anyone who uses an asset on open-ended and disinterested terms
to have any commercial relations with leasers. In the meantime, no such
ban applies to a full-fledged proprietor.
-0-str
