Shushi Carpet Museum

The collection is composed of two parts. The founding private collection includes old carpets of famous Armenian carpet weavers from different villages of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The second part consists of old Armenian carpets found and bought by the founder, Vardan Astsatryan from Austria, Switzerland, Turkey (Istanbul), and Germany.[2]

The museum has two buildings under its supervision. A fund was established in 2011 due to donors from the United States. Also, in 2012 a proper building was designated for displaying the carpets by donors from Moscow, Russia.[3]

The museum has carpets and traditional historical artifacts on display. After close examination these artifacts receive expert evaluation, needed restoration and then are put on display.

Currently the museum has around three hundred carpets and flat weaves in its collection. They date from the 17th-century to the beginning of the 20th-century. The majority of the collection presents traditional Karabakh carpet-weaving and Armenian carpet-weaving styles.[4] Besides the locally woven carpets there are Turkoman, Afghan and Persian rugs, carpets, and flat weaves in the museum's collection. There are also Russian cultural artifacts in the museum.

During his visit to the museum on August 2013 unrecognised Republic of Artsakh's President Bako Sahakyan stated that the carpet museum plays an important role in preserving our national traditions and values and also for the development of tourism.[5]

• Shusha Carpet Museum