BELGRADE, March 8. /TASS/. Seven paintings by Nicholas Roerich, which seemed lost from the moment Germany attacked Yugoslavia in April, 1941, have been found in Serbia's National Museum in Belgrade, curator of the foreign paintings collection Jelena Dergenc told TASS on Wednesday.
"The collection of the National Museum in Belgrade has seven paintings by Nicholas Roerich," she said.
"The Guests from Overseas painting is at the collection of the National Museum in Belgrade," she said.
Nicholas Roerich did not have information about where the painting was. "Sometimes I am asked about some of my paintings, least of all I am aware about them," he wrote in a letter. "Guests from Overseas used to be in Belgrade, but where it is now? Thus, if you hear anything - write about it."
"Is a Yugoslavian consul in New York at all? If yes, would be good to inquire about my pictures in Belgrade, and I would care most about Slavic Land and Guests from Overseas," another letter reads. Unfortunately, as yet there are no traces of Slavic Land.
TASS correspondent learned from the Serbian National Museum their collection in Belgrade has seven paintings by Roerich. Earlier, Russian diplomats found another ten paintings, which believed to be lost, in Croatia.
Nicholas Roerich (October 9, 1874 - December 13, 1947) was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, and theosophist, perceived by some in Russia as a philosopher, and public figure, who in his youth was influenced by a movement in Russian society around the spiritual. He was an Academician of the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts (1909). He is author of more than 2,000 paintings and sketches, many of them are in world galleries. He is author of the international agreement on monument protection (the so-called Roerich Pact, which some countries joined in the 1930-1940). Later on, in 1954, that document made the basis of The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.