Weeks ago, a group of Diaspora Armenians, a few art experts and a dozen representatives of the cultural scene were saying their final farewell to artist Markos Grigorian at theChamberMusic Hall.

During that sad event, I recalled the few brief meetings that I had had with the artist, during which I had felt not only his charm as a man and an artist, but also his hurt and pain at being constantly rejected.

In 1992-93, when many were not even sure whether Armenia - in the middle of a war, blockaded and engulfed in an energy crisis - would survive, this man gathered his collection, built up over four decades, and moved it here from the United States.  He had brought it as a gift to his homeland.

I believe that everyone who has seen this collection, now housed in one of the halls of the art museum, has been left with an indelible impression.  For those who have not seen it, let me say that it is a unique collection of Persian, Armenian, Russian and European culture and daily life, where relics from the pre-historic civilizations of Lurista, Elam, Suza and Amlal can be seen alongside fashionable faucets, door knockers, irons, gramophones and other items.

The museum, which would have been called Armenia-Middle East, never ended up with an address of its own or its place in tourist guidebooks, but it remained Markos Grigorian’s fondest dream.  In 1993, he expected the government to allocate a building for his collection, but no suitable property was found in Yerevan and it continues to be displayed at the museum of literature and art, occupying a part of the already small territory of this institution.

All my attempts to interview the artist ended in failure.  He had no intention of speaking about art and kept silent about the museum so as not to “bad mouth” the authorities of his homeland.  “There was a war at first, so it was understandable.  Then the war had just ended, so it was understandable too.  But now I don’t understand why this museum does not interest anyone,” he said off the record in September 2001, when we were doing a report on the museum.

There are many reasons behind the rejection of the donated museum in Armenia.  Let me note a few of them.  The first is the Middle Eastern composition of the collection.  If Markos had donated a collection of purely European or Russian treasures, then I think space would have been allocated for it.  But no place has been found yet because we are constantly seeking to distance ourselves from our region.

The second reason is an attitude of plain philistinism.  A former official from the cultural sphere once told me that, except for a few items in Markos’ collection, the rest were just a bunch of “odds and ends”.  That is to say, since when are a bunch of taps of door knockers (a huge variety of them) worthy of a separate building in which to display them?

And the third reason, which is the most common and also the most problematic, is the following attitude - he is a Diaspora Armenian, let him solve his own problems. So Markos Grigorian, who brought his collection to Armenia, should have bought land, erected a building on that land, placed his collection in it and invited the President to the opening ceremony to cut the ribbon, and that would have been a serious contribution to the development of tourism.  Notably, Markos said a number of times that if a building were to be allocated, he was willing to have it renovated and furnished himself.

Markos’ collection, however, is not the only one to be neglected through sheer indifference.  In 1981, the American-Armenian sculptor and artist Khoren Ter-Harutyan brought his work to Armenia. He donated 90 sculptures, 160 pieces of graphic work and 17 paintings to the National Gallery of Armenia.  He wished to have a separate exhibition and the authorities in power at the time supported him.

An exhibition of Ter-Harutyan’s complete collection was organized in the Echmiadzin branch of the gallery, which was located at the time in the building of the Gevorgyan Seminary.  After independence, when the seminary was returned to the Church, the museum moved to a movie theater building, and now, one-fifth of the Diaspora Armenian artist’s work is being shown in a hall that does not have the necessary facilities for such an exhibition.

Harutyun Harutyunyan, the director of the museum, said that they take some paintings to the gallery and replace them with other items from the storage room, in order to give visitors a more complete idea of the range of work.  In this way, around one hundred items are displayed over the period of one year.

"We write a letter to the Ministry every year as a solemn duty, but we know beforehand that nothing is going to happen," said Harutyunyan.  After reconstruction and refurbishment, the building would be able to provide a permanent place not only for Ter-Harutyan's work, but would also have free space where other exhibitions could be organized.

If Khoren Ter-Harutyan had donated money or erected buildings, schools and churches, then he would have had the reputation of a great philanthropist.  But few people know him today because when we say "the potential of the Diaspora" we do not mean intellectual abilities, but rather the depth of one's pockets.

Markos Grigorian himself - who was the founder of the Biennale of Iranian Art and the first person to introduce that culture at the Vienna Biennale, who has had a gallery in New York (and huge experience in art management, besides his own knowledge of esthetics) - should have been invited by the authorities to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts, with at least a modest salary, which he would probably turn down and volunteered at any rate.  Sargis Chabunyan (France), who is well known in France, should also have got the same treatment.  He came to Armenia last year and was the guest of a small group of artists.  The Ministry of Culture should have commissioned the publication of Mark Nshanyan's (USA) work, and the Ministry of Education should have invited him to teach at the University.

The list is long, and nothing will change by publishing it here.  None of this has been done and will not be done tomorrow, because people in Armenia think that the best gift is money and the best investment is financial.

P.S. Future articles will present Markos Grigorian's "Armenia-Middle East" collection in greater detail.

M. Grigorian's photo by V. Mkhitaryan