Thousands of works of art were destroyed in a fire that engulfed the National Art Gallery of Abkhazia, severely damaging the cultural heritage of the pro-Russian separatist region of Georgia.

On Sunday, fire engulfed the Central Exhibition Hall of the city of Sukhumi, where the gallery was located on the second floor of the building. The cause of the fire has not been established.

More than 4,000 of the gallery’s artworks are estimated to have burned, most of them stored in poor conditions, unprotected and crammed into small rooms and narrow halls, the Abkhaz World news site reported, AP reported.

“Everything has burned,” said the interim Minister of Culture Dinara Smir, reports the regional information agency Apsnypress. “This is an irreparable loss for the national culture of Abkhazia. I am suffocating from tears. It is difficult for me to speak,” News.ro reports.

Apsnypress reported that the gallery’s collection included around 300 works by Oleksandr Chachba-Shervashidze, an exiled artist who the separatist republic considers “the first professional Abkhazian artist”. None of his works are believed to have survived, Smear said.

The National Art Gallery is located in Sukhum, the capital of the separatist republic. Abkhazia has declared its own government and is supported by Russia, but is not officially recognized as a state by most countries or the UN. According to the State Statistics Committee of Abkhazia, in 2021 the population of the region was approximately 244,000.

According to state media, the central exhibition hall of the National Art Gallery caught fire overnight and emergency services were called to the scene on Sunday morning. By 7:00 a.m. local time, the flames were contained, and by 11:00 a.m., the fire was extinguished, Apsnypress reports, adding that 11 firefighters were called to the scene.

“The death of works of art, which were the foundation of the National Art Gallery, is an irreparable loss for the cultural heritage of our state,” the Parliament of Abkhazia said.

About 150 paintings by Abkhazian artists survived the fire, Apsnypress reports with reference to Smyr. The news agency also reported that the General Prosecutor’s Office of Abkhazia has started an investigation into the cause of the fire.

Georgian President Salome Zourabisvili called the fire “a tragedy for all of us” in a social media post. She also criticized the leadership of the region, saying: “I regret what is a direct result of the neglect of cultural identity by both the de facto leadership and the Russian occupiers.”