The Savitsky Museum in Nukus

Few travellers expect to find a world-class art museum in Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan, on the edge of the Kyzylkum desert and the dried-up Aral Sea. Yet the State Museum of Arts of Karakalpakstan, named after its founder Igor Vitalievich Savitsky, is often called the "Louvre of the desert" and is the main reason most visitors come to the city.

The museum’s collection runs to tens of thousands of objects; figures of around 90,000 are often quoted. Only a small part is on display at any time, in rotating exhibitions.

Igor Savitsky (1915–1984) was born in Kyiv and trained as a painter in Moscow. In 1950 he first came to Karakalpakstan as an artist with the Khorezm archaeological and ethnographic expedition led by Sergei Tolstov, which excavated the ancient fortresses of the region. He stayed, fascinated by the desert, its ruins and the culture of the Karakalpaks.

He began by collecting Karakalpak jewellery, textiles, carpets and costumes, which were disappearing fast. In 1966 he became the founding director of the new museum in Nukus. He then turned to painting: tracking down the families of artists who had been repressed, forgotten or forbidden to exhibit, he bought or was given thousands of works, often at great personal risk, and brought them to Nukus, far from Moscow’s censors.

The paintings are the museum’s most famous treasure. There are two main groups.

The Russian avant-garde: works from the 1910s to the 1930s by artists who did not follow socialist realism, many of whom were persecuted, imprisoned or died in the camps. Some are known names, others were almost completely forgotten before the museum rediscovered them.

The "Uzbek school": Russian and local artists who worked in Central Asia in the 1920s and 1930s, such as Alexander Volkov, Usto Mumin (Alexander Nikolaev) and others, who painted the bazaars, caravans, teahouses and people of Uzbekistan in bold modernist colours. Volkov’s Pomegranate Teahouse style of glowing, fragmented scenes is a highlight.

The story of the collection is told in the documentary film The Desert of Forbidden Art (2010).

The museum’s other halls are just as rewarding. The Karakalpak collection includes silver jewellery set with coral and carnelian, embroidered women’s costumes and headdresses, felt and woven yurt decorations, carpets and saddle bags, showing the life of a semi-nomadic people of the Amu Darya delta.

The archaeological collection comes from the fortresses of ancient Khorezm excavated by the Tolstov expedition, among them Toprak Kala and other sites: ceramics, terracotta figurines, ossuaries (bone boxes) used in Zoroastrian burials, coins and fragments of wall paintings. Seeing these before or after a trip to the desert fortresses brings the ruins to life.

Location: in the centre of Nukus, in a modern building on the main avenue.

Tickets: an entrance fee is charged; photography usually costs extra. Guided tours in English can be booked at the museum; it is worth asking in advance.

Opening hours: usually daily except one day a week; hours can change, so check locally before you go.

Time needed: at least 2–3 hours; art lovers can easily spend a whole day.

Tips: displays rotate, so it is worth asking what is on show. Combine the museum with the Mizdakhan necropolis in the afternoon. For more ideas, see things to do in Nukus.

Nukus is about three hours by road from Khiva, and has flights and trains from Tashkent. Many visitors stop on the way to or from the Aral Sea, or drive up from Khiva via the desert fortresses and return the same day. See how to get to Nukus. Our team in Khiva arranges cars, drivers and guides for the trip, or the Aral Sea and Karakalpakstan tour.