A criminal case was initiated against the former director of the PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Nailya Allahverdiyeva, under the article of «insulting the feelings of believers», reported the local publication Properm.ru citing its own sources.
According to interlocutors in the prosecutor's office, the case was initiated after citizens' appeals to various law enforcement agencies. The reason was several works on biblical subjects exhibited in the Perm museum, such as the painting by Sergey Gorshkov «Angel with a Trumpet», «Blue Cities» by Tanya Anoshina, and the engraving by Konstantin Zvezdochetov Paradisi. These works were first exhibited at PERMM back in 2011-2012.
This is not the first case in Perm of law enforcement actions against cultural figures due to citizens' appeals. In 2023, the planned exhibition «The Return of God Home» was canceled after the appeal of the movement «Call of the People» to the Investigative Committee and the prosecutor's office. And during the annual exhibition «Ponaehali. ART-Perm. XXV», paintings by artist Alisa Sokolova were overturned because the director of the department of national and religious relations of the governor's administration, Anastasia Subbotina, considered that the artist's paintings might be offensive to religious people.
Nailya Allahverdiyeva collaborated with PERMM for more than 10 years, and in 2019 she headed it. She left the position of director in early December — shortly after searches were conducted at the museum and at Allahverdiyeva's home in connection with the criminal case of gallerist Marat Gelman*. Gelman, commenting on the searches, stated that he has not worked with PERMM for 11 years.
In January, the Perm Krai prosecutor's office filed a lawsuit, demanding to dismiss Allahverdiyeva not of her own volition, but «due to loss of trust».
* Recognized in Russia as a «foreign agent», included in the list of «terrorists and extremists».
Photo: Natasha Polish