The book “Icons from the National Church Museum of History and Archaeology” was officially presented on 11 March in the “Prof. Marin Drinov” Hall of BAS. The publication is the work of the Institute of Art Studies of BAS and the National Church Museum of History and Archaeology under the Holy Synod.
The President of BAS, Corr. Memb. Evelina Slavcheva, attended the event and congratulated the team that prepared the unique in content, form and significance edition. “The material is organized as artifacts are published in a thematic exhibition with a conference. An important achievement of the publication is the authors’ statement that the origin of many icons that had been lost or misplaced has been recovered. New icon painters have been identified, and a number of errors related to the work of some popular masters have been corrected,” the BAS President said in her address. She added that for the first time in the scientific literature, the process of collection formation in the initial years of the establishment of the National Church Museum of History and Archaeology had been studied.
Metropolitan Seraphim of Nevrokop extended his greetings to the team of the publication on behalf of Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil and pointed out that the museum had the richest collection of artifacts related to the activities of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
The Director of the National Church Museum of History and Archaeology under the Holy Synod Assoc. Prof. Ivan Rashkov, Assoc. Prof. Ivan Vanev from the Institute of Art Studies, Natalia Nedelcheva and Prof. Georgi Nikolov presented the work of the team on the unique edition.
The book is the result of the research work of a large team of specialists (Alexander Kuyumdzhiev, Vesselina Yoncheva, Darina Boykina, Ivan Vanev, Ivan Rashkov, Ivanka Gergova, Maya Zaharieva, Margarita Kuyumdzhieva, Mariela Stoykova, Maria Kolusheva, Natalia Nedelcheva, Ralitsa Rousseva, Tereza Bacheva, Tsveta Kuneva, Tsvetan Vasilev) and has been supported by the Bulgarian National Science Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science.
It is with this publication dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Museum that the largest collection of iconography in Bulgaria presented almost in its entirety in the massive volume with over 700 photographs and accompanying scholarly articles is published for the first time.
The event was attended by the Vice-President of BAS Prof. Shtelian D. Shterionov, members of the Assembly of Academicians and Corresponding Members of BAS, representatives of academia and the Bulgarian clergy.
