paintings, sketches, and works in progress by Tarasov; and 400 paintings and 1,600 graphics by Stavrovskiy. Ural Tansykbaev, People’s Artist of the USSR, is well represented: he was interested in Fauvism and French Expressionism, but was also a war artist and produced designs for the ballet. The only known surviving artworks by Vladimir Lysenko, (including The Bull, which has become the museum’s emblem), are all owned and on display in the museum. Many of the artists whose work is exhibited at Nukus Museum of Art were purged by Stalin. Nikolaev was arrested for his sexuality, Kurzin was imprisoned and exiled for anti-Soviet propaganda, and Solokov was interred in a labour camp. Lysenko was arrested and confined to a mental asylum for much of his life because of his art. Their work was supposed to be destroyed, but Savitsky recognised its artistic and political importance and ensured that it was saved. Curators The Russian painter, archeologist, and collector, Igor Savitsky, first visited Karakalpakstan in 1950 to participate in the Khorezm Archeological & Ethnographic Expedition. He later moved to Nukus, Karakalpakstan’s capital, and assembled an extensive collection of Karakalpak jewellery, carpets, coins, clothing, and other artefacts. Savitsky convinced the Karakalpak authorities of the value of establishing a state museum in Nukus, and when it opened he was appointed its first curator. It was Savitsky who amassed the museum’s extraordinary avant-garde art collection, risking his own life and liberty to acquire banned artworks. Marinika Babanazarova succeeded Savitsky as curator of Nukus Museum of Art in 1984. She graduated from Tashkent Art Institute and also received training at the Louvre and British Museum. She presented more than 20 exhibitions in France, Germany, Russia, and the United States, as well as in Uzbekistan. Her essays have featured in five exhibition catalogues, including the best selling Avangard, ostanovlennyi na begu (Avant-Garde Stopped on the Run). Babanazarova was controversially fired from the museum in 2015 but resolved differences with the Art & Culture Development Foundation and was on the interview panel to appoint Tigran Mkrtychev to the post of director in 2019. Gulbahar Izentaeva replaced Marinika Babanazarova as director and curator of the museum. Tigran Mkrtychev is a Russian archeologist and art historian who knew Igor Savitsky personally. He became the deputy director of the Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow, then director of the Roerich Museum. He has also been an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at