An emergency of non -universal universal scale

Due to gross violations of storage conditions under the threat of death, part of the iconographic collection of the Rogozhsky cemetery turned out to be

The unique meeting of ancient Russian art, inaccessible to the general public, is at risk of partial loss. Unfortunately, it is still impossible to evaluate the entire degree of this threat - the injured collection is in the hands of the church, to which Vladimir Putin has recently shows almost more sympathy than the Russian Orthodox Church ...

Information about the incident was hidden for almost a month and leaked to the fence of the Moscow Rogozhsky cemetery, which has the spiritual and administrative center of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (RPSC), only now. As I managed to find out the “new”, on March 6, the icon of the Rogozhsky cemetery broke out the icon of the Rogozhsky cemetery, and the icons, as well as some books and vestments, flooded with hot water in the icon (actually basement) floor. “There was a hydraulic blow”, as our source in the RPSC expressed. I noticed the rejoicing that passed by the reality when the water was already filling the basement.

Carefully closing the gates of the spiritual and administrative complex, the employees of the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church transferred the injured shrines to the dry room.

In total, more than 600 icons were in the icon storage, among which there are Byzantine and Old Russian, including those written at the school of Andrei Rublev.

The exact inventory of these icons, if it exists, is also inaccessible to “external”, including journalists. Only a few masterpieces are described in Elena Yukhimenko’s book “The Old Believer Center behind the Rogozhsky Force” (M., 2012).

The old Rogozh parishioners claim that twenty years ago there were at least a thousand icons in the storage. In the process of distributing them to the newly opening temples or for restoration, some of the shrines were presented, and some, allegedly sold, replenishing quite well -known private collections. For example, as the new one wrote back in 2019, a collection of singer and composer Grigory Leps “The Preferenne Arty”, composed mainly of the works of Old Believer masters, part of whom was previously located in the Rogozhsky icon storage, was exhibited in the State Historical Museum. The singer most likely conscientiously acquired them at auctions, but how they got there - an object for a separate investigation (maybe criminal). The same article describes another criminal technology - “substitution of restoration”: when instead of an ancient icon taken for restoration, a modern fake is returned, issued for “too brightly restored” original.

The “erosion” of the Rogozh Assembly became possible under the current Metropolitan of the RPSC Cornelia (Titov) - his predecessors kept the shrines of their ancestors as the apple of the Oka, even in the difficult conditions of atheistic persecution. Attempts by journalistic or public investigations of what was happening with Rogozhsky’s collections were divided into traditional Old Believer closeness and direct patronage, which the Kremlin and Old Square are cornered ...

Most of all, 22 icons were injured from the “hydraulic blow”, the exact dating of which is unknown. It is assumed that at least two of them date back to the XVI - XVII centuries. According to experts, these icons occurred, that is, the colorful layer separated from the boards. Whether they are subject to restoration and to what extent - the question is open. As well as it is not clear which state body is obliged to control the safety of the collections of the Rogozhsky cemetery and how it was possible to avoid the registration of monuments of the 12th - 17th centuries, which are part of these collections.

Only on March 24, the Moscow Metropolitan RPSC announced the formation of a working group for the salvation of the injured shrines, led by the priest Alexy Lopatin, the head of the museum-archy bibliotechnical department of the Metropolitan. In theory, he was supposed to be responsible for the safety of the collection. In 2018, controlled by Fr. Alexy ANO Krinitsa received a multimillion-dollar presidential grant for digitizing and placing valuable monuments from the Rogozh Assembly in an open Internet.

Because of the disagreements with the payment of hosting, this project was never completed, although the grant was mastered and reported on this.

Now, according to the official message, all the injured icons are “placed under the cargo”, covered with cirrier paper and “are pressed up ... with cloth bags of sand”. The working group emphasizes that the sand took 3.5 tons for this case. Not all restorers are sure that this method is optimal, but the RPSC trusts only to its specialists. The official website of the church announced the upcoming “significant financial costs” and began collecting donations. At the same time, the expenses are ready to take on the World Union of the Old Believers - the largest independent body of the Old Believers, operating in many countries of the world. He volunteered to restore and digitize the remaining Rogozh icons, as well as arrange a modern museum collection from them, accessible to everyone. But in the RPSC, as in any church structure close to power, they do not like independent and are suspicious of their sacrifice ...

It has not yet been possible to get any comments in the Moskomnoye, for those officials with whom the correspondent of the “New” spoke, the presence of such a valuable collection in the basement of the Old Believer bell tower was generally a surprise.