Fire destroys thousands works of art at the main gallery in Georgia’s separatist region of Abkhazia

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Thousands of artworks have been destroyed in a fire that swept through the main art gallery in Abkhazia in a severe blow to the cultural heritage of the separatist Georgian region. The blaze swept through the Central Exhibition Hall on Sunday in the city of Sukhumi, where the gallery was located on the second floor of a building. The cause of the fire has not been determined. The gallery’s estimated 4,000 artworks were mostly stored in poor conditions, unprotected and jammed into small rooms and narrow halls. That’s according to the news website Abkhaz World said in a statement.