In Yerevan, in the courtyard of the “Moscow” cinema, carpets from the carpet museum of Shushi city and “Artsakh carpet” are displayed.

In the last days of the 44-day Artsakh war, days before the fall of the city of Shushi, the exhibits in the museum were evacuated, although not completely. Artsakh carpets have been on display since February 20 in Yerevan, at the National Museum-Institute of Architecture named after Alexander Tamanyan. The Shushi Museum was the only one in the world where the origin of all carpet samples is clear. There may be older and more valuable carpets in museums of other countries, but their origin is not clear, because they were not acquired from the original source, they passed through several hands before appearing in the museum. The carpet collection belongs to Vardan Astsatryan, a native of Artsakh, an economist-lawyer by profession. Thanks to his initiative, the handmade carpets, which are the visiting card of Artsakh, have been preserved and presented to the world as Artsakh culture. The museum’s permanent display of about 300 carpets in the city of Shushi included 80 carpets that were saved. In terms of quantity, 70% were taken out, in terms of quality, they make up 90-95%. 120 carpets remained in the collection of the museum of occupied Shushi city.