“Where there is Culture, there is Peace. There is heroism, and there is the right solution to of the most difficult social problems. Culture is the accumulation of the highest Goodness, the highest Beauty, the highest Knowledge.”
Nicholas Roerich
Now is the time when Culture, like a beacon of salvation, must stop the terrible dragon of war and save world civilisation. But to do this, civilization itself must turn its eyes to the rescuing lighthouse – Culture. And here at the forefront are the philosophical ideas of Nicholas Roerich, his slogan “Peace through Culture”, which are the basis of the first international treaty to protect the cultural treasures of the world, known as the Roerich Pact, as well as the activities of a cultural and educational public organization established in Russia by Svyatoslav Roerich.
The International Centre of the Roerichs and its non-governmental Nicholas Roerich Museum play a crucial role in the promotion of the peace-making ideas of the Roerich Pact and the scientific-philosophical ideas of the Living Ethics. For more than a quarter of a century, the International Centre of the Roerichs, created with the efforts of a large Russian and international Roerich community, has preserved and promoted at the public Nicholas Roerich Museum, located in the historic Lopukhin Estate in Moscow, the richest legacy of the Roerich family handed over by Svyatoslav Roerich.
Since April 29, 2017, the work of public Nicholas Roerich Museum has been stopped through illegal seizure of the Roerichs’ heritage and the Lopukhin Estate by the State Museum of the East with the direct involvement of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. The unique museum exposition, created over 25 years, was barbarously destroyed, and part of the expensive museum equipment and exhibits was intentionally damaged and broken. Chronology (Continue…)
Long-term work of the international public and general director of the museum, academician and indologist Lyudmila Shaposhnikova, was cynically destroyed, crossing the will of its founder Svyatoslav Roerich. The deliberate destruction of the exposition of the public Nicholas Roerich Museum of the International Centre of the Roerichs violates cultural rights of members of the international Roerich movement who contributed greatly to the reconstruction of Lopukhin Estate, a monument of architecture of the 17th-19th centuries and the creation of the public museum.
“Destruction of a Museum means destruction of the country,” wrote Nicholas Roerich in the 1940s, deeply believing in the high mission of museums and their leading role in the preservation of culture. The European Association proposes to consolidate the forces of public organisations, cultural activists to actively support the well-known public cultural centre and its public Nicholas Roerich Museum. For this, The European Association has produced the booklet “The Museum the World Needs” in 12 languages.
The Roerich Pact / Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments (Roerich Pact), signed in Washington in 1935, defines the need to protect cultural property not only in time of war but above all in peacetime. What happened in Moscow in the twenty-first century with the public Nicholas Roerich Museum of the International Centre of the Roerichs is one of the reasons to address the importance of the Roerich Pact in today’s world.
The International Roerichs Movement participates in many activities of the International Centre of the Roerichs: exhibition projects, seminars, conferences, creative competitions. The forced closure of the public Nicholas Roerich Museum and confiscation of its exhibits led to violations of human rights in the field of cultural activities not only of Russian citizens, but also of the international community. Today, the International Centre of the Roerichs, with international public support, continues to defend its right to Roerich’s legacy in courts, including the European Court of Human Rights, and to assert the will of the donor. Link: https://save.icr.su/en/
Website of the Committee for the Protection of the Roerichs’ Public Museum. Link: https://www.save-roerich-museum.ru/
The public Nicholas Roerich Museum was a unique phenomenon in Russian culture, and its educational and peace-keeping activities have attracted a wide response in many countries of the world. We believe that through the joint efforts of all warm-hearted people who are not indifferent to the values of culture and who are ready to stand up for justice and lawfulness, the exposition of the public Nicholas Roerich Museum of the ICR will be re-established!