Monastery of The Cross - Destruction of Georgian Artifacts

Destruction of Georgian Artifacts

In June 2004, shortly before a visit by the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to Israel, a fresco of the legendary Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli on a column inside the church was defaced by unknown individuals. It is the only extant medieval portrait of Rustaveli. The face and part of the accompanying inscription were scratched out. Georgia officially complained to Israel after the incident. When asked whether he believed the damage was the work of representatives of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Georgian ambassador to Israel, Revaz Gachechiladze replied "I don't know. There are suspicions, but no evidence". Similar incidents occurred in the monastery in 1970s and 1980s. The Georgian inscriptions were painted over and replaced by Greek ones. In a 1901 photograph of the Council of Archangels fresco there are Georgian inscriptions, but 1960 photographs show the inscriptions had been changed to Greek; after cleaning the paintings the Georgian inscriptions emerged again. The same happened in the case of the Anapeston. In many places (e.g. near the figures of St. Luke and St. Prochore) the outline of Georgian letters are clearly visible under the recently added Greek inscriptions.