Activities of Sh.YA. Amiranashvili during the campaign to transfer Georgian values from Russian collections in 1922–1923

In 1922–1923, by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR, Russian museums and libraries were forced to transfer part of their collections of Georgian origin to Georgia. Resistance from the scientific and museum community did not produce results. A budding art historian, future Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Sh.Ya. Amiranashvili took part in the work of the expert commissions. As archival documents from the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF) show, Amiranashvili was under obvious political pressure. In addition to the minutes of the meetings of the expert commissions and copies of the acts of transfer of art objects to the Georgian side, the GARF has preserved Amiranashvili’s expert opinion on the Georgian monuments of the Historical Museum, which can be given the provisional title “General Considerations on Georgian Fine Art”. It provides an expanded description of medieval Georgian art, in particular reliefs and sculpture, and reveals the complex multi-layered nature of medieval Georgian art. This expert opinion can be considered the first scientific work of Sh.Ya. Amiranashvili.