Unique tapestries found rotten on a roof in Alma-Ata

They have been missing since 2000.

Almost a detective story happened in Almaty: valuable rare tapestries by muralist Vladimir Tverdokhlebov, considered missing in 2000, were found on the roof of the building of the Academy of Sciences. True, in a semi-decomposed state. They ended up there not by malicious intent, but because of negligence and a banal misunderstanding that these “rugs” are a unique work of art.

The famous Soviet muralist Vladimir Tverdokhlebov, the author of the famous Alma-Ata fountain “Oriental Calendar”, in 1984, as an artist of the complex design of the House of Scientists of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, was engaged in the interior design of the pretentious building. The House of Scholars was decorated with mosaics using semi-precious stones, including Roman-style mosaics, stained-glass windows, wall paintings and reliefs by him.

Tapestries, created according to sketches by Vladimir Tverdokhlebov, hung along the walls. “These were unique works, as they were created specifically for the complex of the Academy of Sciences. Each panel and curtain was thought out for its hall with a specific theme. These are the author’s and unique works of my father, which were woven by hand according to his sketches.

Some of them were so large that standard carpet looms were not suitable for them and special frames were made. Several tapestries worked day and night to create these curtains and panels in the shortest possible time. This is the finest work, and few of them have survived,” Tverdokhlebov’s daughter Anara Forrester told Kazakh journalists. In 2000, the tapestries were removed from the walls, after which their trace was lost. Tverdokhlebov himself believed that they were gone forever.

In July this year, Tverdokhlebov passed away at the age of 85. His daughter, in memory of her father, suggested that the Academy of Sciences hold an exhibition in memory of the artist. During a discussion of the exposition, Denis Keen, a researcher of Soviet architecture from the USA, asked where the famous tapestries are now, showing their photographs in an album. As it turned out, the leadership of the Academy knew nothing about their fate. However, when the question was asked to the deputy director for the economic part, he remembered that some kind of “carpets” were on the roof. They were taken out there to dry, because they were stored in the back room for a long time and moths started up in them.

When Anara Forrester and Denis Keen went up to the roof, they were horrified to find a pile of damp, covered with plastic. half-decayed tapestries. “It’s a shame that they were practically destroyed because of ignorance of the value of these objects. They did not carry any ideological message and revealed the theme of science, space. For example, one of them, dedicated to the topic of digitalization, was made literally in a pixel style. These the works would still look quite modern. Now we will try to find specialists and restore at least some of the works,” Anara said. Maybe at least the two most surviving tapestries can be saved …