A contract has been executed between the Matenadaran and “Hill” library-museum of the US state of Minnesota, according to which the American party has agreed to digitalize the old manuscripts of the Matenadaran and jointly manage the future use of the manuscripts. This contract is very much like the contract privatizing “Hayfilm” film studio. They were acting fast that time too. When preparing this article, we found out that it is not a secret for many people that Gerard Cafesjian, who is a well-known person and collectоr from Minnesota, has a part in this transaction.
If in the case of “Hayfilm” they held a competition; but this time they didn’t do a thing to hold a competition. The American party developed a recommendation, which was accepted the same day. International experience tells that usually the institution possessing old manuscripts shall announce a competition, collect the applications and then choose the best version among the suggestions. Anyway, the one to decide shall be the owner of the cultural wealth, not the one that is doing the work. The principle of being the owner does not mean that the owner shall sit on the treasures and say that he or she will not give anything to anyone. They should collaborate with other parties as well and open their cultural treasures to the world too, but it shall be done in a due manner. We have a unique collection of ancient manuscripts and the one that may say what to do is the Armenian society. It is very strange that the director of the Matenadaran, Sen Arevshatyan, resigned yesterday and did not wait till the termination of his tenure (his term was to finish soon). We wonder why our government doesn’t initiate the digitalization of the manuscripts (over 17,000). This is the other side of the coin, which we will discuss in our next publication.