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the newly opened mediatheque at the
More than Thirty Years of Friendship
FRIENDS of the Museum > Natia Likokeli
In November, 2017 Professors of the Philipps University of Marburg - Mrs. Heidemarie Koch, Iranologist and Mr. Guntram Koch, Classical and
Christian Archaeologist - donated priceless gifts to the Museum’s Library: unique books of Medieval Art and Byzantine History. The friendship
between the couple and the Georgian National Museum started in the 1990s. We took the opportunity to interview them, to introduce these
renowned German scientists to our readers, as their work to present Georgian culture to the international scientific community has been
significant for more than 30 years.
You have been friends with Georgia
and the Georgian National Museum for
many years. Can you tell us how this star-
ted?
Mr. Koch: I am a Professor of Christian Ar-
chaeology and Byzantine Art History, and
although Georgia did not belong to the
Byzantine Empire there are many influen-
ces here from Byzantium. Therefore, with
my students, I gave a seminar on Georgia
in the 1980s, and we planned our first ex-
cursion here in 1988, although we could
not carry it out. About 30 years ago we
opinion, too. I have created a one-year
met Prof. Otar Lordkipanidze in Rome at
the German Archaeological Institute there.
We enjoyed each other’s company, talked
and had dinner together; we became close
even though we had just met, and had the
impression that we had known each other
for many years. Since that time we have had
closer connections with Georgia. We made
a wonderful excursion with a large group
of students and colleagues in 2000, and
decided to help the Museum a bit, as much
as we could, as private persons. That year
every student brought at least two or three
dying Georgian art to see what there is that
books, and we had the first 60 to 80 books
to support the Archaeological Institute. La-
ter we saw a need for books on icons and
wall paintings, to have comparable material
from Byzantium. Therefore we searched for
books in Greece and Germany that would
be useful for our colleagues here in Georgia
for conducting good scientific work.
You have presented wonderful collec-
tions of books to the Museum Library.
And this is not all. Few years ago you
have donated amazing publications to
Museum of Mestia. This was especially
important for us as the Svaneti Museum
aims to become a cultural-educational
centre. The mediatheque with speciali-
sed books encourages scientific research
and the education of future generations.
Mr. Koch: Yes, I agree, today you can have
books everywhere – on the internet, and
so on, but you have to have real books to
look at them, to read them and to compare
with other materials. First of all, they contain
materials that you don’t always find on the
internet. If there is a book with 100 photo-
graphs, perhaps you can find two online. If a
book was published in only 300 copies, and
if it was not digitized, you must have such
books to study and compare. It is impossi-
ble to compare photos on the internet. You
need a large table where you can have ten
books with the photos, so you can compare
the church in Manglisi with that of Martvi-
li, with that in Constantionopolis and with
that in Greece. This is impossible with the
internet, where you have one photo and
nothing else, and often no details.
Could you talk about Georgian medi-
val art and where you would place it in
the big picture?
Mr. Koch: For me it is so interesting be-
cause one of my hobbies and interests has
always been the connections between
Byzantium and other regions. I began my
studies with art history and was interested
in the influence of Byzantium on Germany,
and later about the influence of Byzantium
on Georgia. Here we can say that the archi-
tecture, the types, are Byzantine, but all the
decoration, the kinds of stone, the kind of
domes, the shape of the domes and so on,
are typically Georgian. However, the style
of the plans and so on are Byzantine, and
therefore it would be highly interesting to
study each province. For example, we have
excellent work in enamel imported from
Byzantium here, but obviously in Georgia
there were very well-trained artists who
were not copying, but producing Byzantine
enamel with their own colors, their own re-
presentations, and so on. It is very interes-
ting and difficult to know, and I think many
scholars have different opinions. I have my
seminar specifically about enamel from
Byzantium, from Georgia, from Crimea and
so on, to learn and distinguish their origins.
And what is your opinion about it?
Mr. Koch: We have everything here; we
have imports and we obviously have artists
who came from Byzantium for the ena-
mel; and we have works of Georgians who
learned this excellent technique from the
Byzantine masters. It‘s the same with the
wall-paintings. We have Greek inscriptions
by painters from Byzantium.
How much influence do you see from
Byzantine art on locally produced ob-
jects?
Mr. Koch: The influence is important, in
the same way as the representations of the
Life of Christ, for example, or Mary, but there
are many details. Georgian churches have
often been painted by Georgian artists who
knew the Byzantine iconography, but who
made Georgian artwork. For example, in
the Treasury of the Art Museum there are
three small plates that are typically Geor-
gian works of art, not copies, but made in
the tradition of Byzantine art. One knows at
first sight that they are local.
Mrs. Koch, I know that first you studied
mathematics. Can you tell us, how you
became interested in Iran?
Mrs.Koch: I studied classical archeology
and ancient languages. Some of them, such
as Ancient Greek and Latin, I started even
from secondary school, and when I started
the university I decided to learn some new
languages. My favorite teacher and famous
orientalist, the Iranist Prof. Walther Hintz,
was teaching in the University at the time.
He taught us ancient languages and scripts,
and it was then that a larger horizon ope-
ned for me. I decided to learn rare ancient
languages, such as Elamite, Middle Persian
and then Sasanian. The Sasanian influence
and connections are obvious here in Geor-
gia too.
I fell in love with Iranian culture before I
visited Georgia, but when we came here we
saw how much the two cultures are inter-
connected. Then I became interested in stu-
is truly Persian and what is purely Georgian.
Those two cultures – Byzantine and Sa-
sanian had a huge influence on Georgian
culture. How interesting is it to observe
the development of this so-called cultu-
ral “crossroads”? How do you see Geor-
gia – a country located on the crossroads
of the Eastern and Western worlds?
Mr. Koch: It’s a very difficult question, as it re-
quires generalization. In Georgia we can easily
define from where and whose influences were
taken in. For example, as I already mentioned,
the main planning of the churches can be
influenced by Byzantine culture but you can
see that it is Georgia. It is interesting that in the
later period you can see the Persian influence,
and even more interesting that in the period
of the Seljuks i.e. in the Early Islamic period. So
the buildings have some Islamic elements Is-
lamic and at the same time Georgian. But it is
difficult to say what exactly is Georgian, what
is Byzantine and what is Islamic.
Mr. and Mrs. Koch, you are the long-time
friends of our museum and witnessed the
unification of what is now the Georgian
National Museum. What would you say
about the development of the institution
and how it has changed over the years?
We can’t cover all the aspects at once, but
most important is that despite all difficul-
ties, the renovation of the Archaeological
and Medieval Treasury exhibitions, perma-
nent show of the Georgian Archeology and
especially the Museum of Mestia were very
successfully completed. We only wish that
you had more financial resources to conti-
nue the process as we have seen what tre-
asures are kept in the Museum’s collections.
We are looking forward to the reopening of
the renovated Museum in Vani.
And finally, why it is important in your
opinion for children and youth to go to
museums; what is the role of the mu-
seum today?
This a tough question. The main aim of a
Museum is to keep the objects of our ances-
tors for future generations. The Ancient Egyp-
tians already had an expression, that “If you
know the past, you know the future too”.
GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 17