Cultural heritage body fines companies rehabilitating Gelati UNESCO monument
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, January 20
The National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation, the state body for cultural monuments, has fined and replaced the company working on the ongoing rehabilitation of the Gelati Monastery Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the country's west, for failing to fix deficiencies in the work.
According to the agency Georgian Arts & Culture Centre and Ikorta 2007, both contractors working on the most recent stage of works on Gelati - will be fined GEL 12,000 each for ‘failure to amend results of work carried out in violation of terms, despite warnings issued last year’.
Releasing updates on developments around the monument since July when rainwater leaks linked to damage to the complex's newly installed roofing were reported from the site, the state body said a new company would take over the rehabilitation works starting Tuesday. The update revealed that the wind had blown off a section of a temporary structure built by the contractors over the roof of the monument to safeguard it from adverse weather, on Monday.
On January 18, a temporary tin roof over the west arm of the temple was damaged by the wind. The restoration works of the damaged construction have already started.
Water arrived at Gelati Monastery within a month of completing the roof rehabilitation. The rain significantly damaged the murals.
In spring 2020 it was decided to arrange a temporary roof over the main temple of the monastery, the process was completed in December and the arms of the temple were covered with tin.
Agency director Nika Antidze made social media updates on the ongoing work from the location, saying he was personally directing the efforts and calling reports on collapse of the temporary roofing ‘disinformation’.
Bagineti+ was picked as the new contractor for the rehabilitation by the agency, and a group of experts from the state organization are supposed to continuously monitor the work.
According to Parliament’s press service, Tea Tsulukiani, Chairperson of the Committee on Education, Science and Culture and members of the Committee paid a visit to Gelati last week. They got acquainted with the restoration works started on the monument a few years ago. A committee meeting was held in the Kutaisi National Archives building on the shortcomings revealed during the conservation-restoration process of Gelati Monastery. The deputies listened to Antidze’s report and the restorer Kakha Trapaidze regarding the current situation.
Recall that the development follows a request by Ana Natsvlishvili, one of the leaders of the Lelo opposition party, to the prosecutor's office on Monday to launch an investigation into possible ‘wrongful reparation’ process of the Gelati Monastery. She submitted a request for the inquiry about ‘damage to the monument’ caused by alleged mismanagement in the ongoing restoration. Natsvlishvili commented that it is important to create a precedent on specific state organizations being held accountable for alleged damage or destruction of monuments of cultural heritage.
