Belarus as well as any other country is rich in historical and artistic values. However, time and events can be ruthless to the valuable artifacts. In many cases the antiques are simply destroyed during fires, robberies and change of officialdom. There were many attempts to smuggle the values from Belarus, but vigilant border guards timely detained “the thieves".

By the way, there were many things of that kind. In this regard the ready-witted historians have decided to establish a thematic museum in Brest. The museum "Saved artistic value" was opened in 1989. Incidentally, the museum has no analogues in the CIS. Here you can see antique and rare things that were confiscated by the customs officials on the border with Poland while attempting to export them outside the territory of the country. This place is informally known as the museum of condemned things.

The museum is situated in a landmark building that was designed in the manor style by a talented architect Julian Lisiecki and built in 1925 - 1927. The first exhibition was presented to the museum visitors in the restored building in 1989. Nowadays this cultural institution belongs to the Brest Regional ethnographic museum.

Although the museum was opened at the end of the XX century, the collection began to be set up in 1953. Now there are more than 4000 exhibits in the fund of the museum. The estimated money value of the exposition is a few tens of millions of dollars. And this is the most conservative estimate.

Museum artifacts are exhibited in 10 halls. The lion's share of the exhibition is a collection of Russian icons dating from the XVI-XX centuries. The images of "Christ in Majesty", "Old Testament Trinity", "Shestidnev" and many others have great cultural and historical value.

Some icons have their own unusual story. For example the smugglers divided “The Holy Saint Blaise with Vita" into six parts trying to hide and smuggle it through the border.  But their plans failed due to the work of the border guards. The restorers had to apply a lot of effort in order to save and restore this important cultural value.

A unique collection of secular things is especially popular with visitors. The particular pride of the museum is an attire set made of rock crystal in lined in silver. These items belong to the world famous and iconic Faberge.

Men visitors admire listening to the stories about the Caucasian silver rimmed daggers and women do not pass Caucasian female silver belts. It will be interesting for Oriental lovers to have a glance at Japanese paintings on silk, learn the history of Buddhist sculptures and feel the beauty of Chinese vases.

Art lovers will appreciate the paintings by Aivazovsky, Vinogradov, Derby, Myasoedov, Raud, Antaneli and other famous artists. "Demon Downcast" is considered to be the highlight of the collection. The picture was painted by Vrubel. Thus, the museum "Saved artistic value" will be interesting to a wide range of visitors.