Former AGMI director reports crime in Armenian government`s purchase  of controversial artifact from London

ArmInfo. Former Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum- Institute (AGMI), Hayk Demoyan, reported a crime in the acquisition and delivery to Armenia of an artifact put  up for sale at an international auction in London.

As the former AGMI Director explained on his Facebook page, the  Armenian government, represented by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan,  Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister Arayik Harutyunyan, and Minister  of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports (MSCS) Zhanna Andreasyan,  without conducting a sound research or scientific examination, made a  controversial and unjustified purchase using significant funds from  the state reserve fund, presenting the item acquired at an  international auction as an example of Armenian cultural heritage.  "In December 2025, several high-ranking Armenian government officials  posted statements on their Facebook pages, announcing that  175,360,000 drams (approximately $550,000) had been allocated from  the state budget's reserve fund for the purchase of this exhibit.  Specifically, on December 19, 2025, the Chief of Staff of the Prime  Minister of Armenia posted a photograph of a door of unknown origin  on his Facebook page, noting that it was a unique example of medieval  Armenian wooden art-a door from a 12th-century Armenian church,"  Demoyan said.

According to him, it was obvious that the acquisition of this dubious  exhibit for a huge sum from the state reserve fund was directly  related to the parliamentary elections and was intended to leverage  the acquisition in the Civil Contract party's election campaign and  to boost Nikol Pashinyan's approval ratings. "The price paid for this  highly controversial and provenance-questioning exhibit is  inconsistent with the auction prices of similar items at  international auctions and is at least tenfold inflated. In this  case, it must be assumed that there was likely collusion with the  auction organizers-based on a prior agreement to receive a large  monetary gain and return a significant portion of the proceeds to the  purchasing party," the former AGMI director noted.

He noted that the "problematic" door panel had been on sale at Sam  Fogg's London auction for at least 20 years, based on a catalog  published in the 2000s. "For the past 25 years, I've been monitoring  the prices of items sold at numerous international auctions,  regularly receiving catalogs from reputable auction houses, and I  must admit that allocating 175,360,000 drams for such an incomplete,  meaning not entirely preserved, antique item is utterly absurd,"  Demoyan said.

He clarified that a criminal complaint would be filed with the  National Security Service of Armenia, the Anti-Corruption Committee,  and the Prosecutor General's Office. "Considering the aforementioned  government members' intention to purchase the second panel of the  same door in Beirut, which is of similarly unknown origin, I demand  that law enforcement agencies use arrest as a preventive measure to  prevent another attempt to misappropriate funds from the state  reserve fund," the former AGMI director concluded.