OREANDA-NEWS The Ministry of Culture will send Russian restoration specialists to Abkhazia to assist in the restoration of paintings and documents that survived the fire at the National Art Gallery, head of the department Olga Lyubimova said.

"In the near future, a team of the Ministry of Culture will go to Sukhum, which will include representatives of the I.E. Grabar All-Russian Art Research and Restoration Center, the State Research Institute of Restoration, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum," she wrote on Telegram.

Russian experts will inspect the condition of the paintings and documents that were removed from the fire on site and outline a plan of restoration work.

Lyubimova called the fire at the National Art Gallery in Abkhazia, as a result of which paintings were damaged and burned, "a real humanitarian disaster for our colleagues and friends from Abkhazia."

The fire occurred on the night of January 21 in the building of the Central Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists of Abkhazia in Sukhum. According to preliminary data, more than 4 thousand paintings were burned there.