site.btaCustoms Hand Over Valuable Historical, Cultural Artefacts Seized at Attempted Smuggling to Haskovo History Museum

The Customs Agency handed over to the Regional Museum of History (RMH) in Haskovo objects of cultural, historical and artistic value officers rescued at various attempts to their being illegally exported from Bulgaria in recent years. The finds include coins, paintings and icons, which were presented at Tuesday’s ceremony attended by Haskovo Mayor Stanislav Dechev. The objects were seized at the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint (on the border with Turkiye) and the Kapitan Petko Voyvoda checkpoint (on the border with Greece), the head of the Customs Agency Plovdiv Territorial Directorate, Miroslav Belyashki, said.

The seized items include three paintings, discovered in a truck travelling from Hungary to Turkiye through Bulgaria. One dates from the end of the 19th century, the other, a seascape, has not been dated or attributed yet, but the third, a portrait of a Gypsy woman, is more than a hundred years old and is still very well preserved, with its original frame.

The paintings will go to the Atanas Sharenkov City Art Gallery whose Director, Tatyana Foreva, appraised the pieces. They will be joined by two icons, as well as a wooden iconostasis. Of particular interest is an icon of Saint George with an inscription, designating it as a donation to a church with the name of the donor.

The items donated to RMH include 111 antique and medieval coins, among which a silver Roman denarius of Emperor Caracalla, or Marcus Aurelius Antoninus , a bronze antoninianus, a bronze  coin minted by Philip II of Macedon. Some of them were found at Kapitan Andreevo in the ashtray of a car, concealed under Bulgarian stotinki coins.

A Pilgrim’s Map (Jerusalimiya) of the end of the 19th century is one of the most interesting objects found by the customs agents. It was discovered in a Bulgarian-owned truck who tried to smuggle it to Greece through Kapitan Petko Voyvoda checkpoint in 2022.

These ‘maps’ were made by master painters who covered them with images by strict canonical rules. They are a kind of topographical maps of the Holy Land and the area around the Holy Sepulchre, carried by Christians on pilgrimage. The one that remains in the collection of the Haskovo Museum measures 1.55 m by 2.20 m. There are 145 scenes depicted in oil on the canvas. It was created in 1889 on the commission of Hadji Petko, as is evident from the inscription on it. "Generally, such items are a rarity in this country. Pilgrims used to carry them back home and hang them in places of honour in their most beautiful rooms,” RMH Directo Penko Dobrev said.

Mayor Dechev expressed his gratitude for the professional work of Custom Agency’s Plovdiv branch and their making yet another contribution to the development of tourism in Haskovo.

"The gesture is invaluable, and this is another step for the development of tourism in Haskovo, because the increasingly rich funds of the museum and gallery attract more tourists and connoisseurs," he said. The mayor suggested that a joint exhibition be made with the Customs Agency in partnership between the gallery and the museum in Haskovo.