Georgian museum acquires historic Kobuladze sketch

The Georgian Museum of Theatre, Music, Cinema and Choreography has acquired a historical piece by painter Sergo Kobuladze with support of the Ministry of Culture.

The Museum said it had purchased the piece from the painter’s cousin's family and would present it to researchers to study.

The Sketch of the Opera House Curtain was the second piece created by Kobuladze after the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre fire in 1973 that destroyed much of its interior. 

The piece had not been completed by the time the painter died in 1978 and was subsequently finished by his cousin and assistant Ilia Tatishvili, whose family decided to sell the work after his death.

The first Curtain Sketch by Kobuladze is also preserved at the Museum.

Earlier this week researchers uncovered previously unseen paintings by the Georgian artist at his former workshop in a residential area of central Tbilisi, filed in a "surprisingly orderly” fashion. 

"We now realise we had previously not known Sergo Kobuladze, or knew very little of his work,” Chubinashvili National Research Centre representative Mariam Gachechiladze said about the discovery.