Bulgarian Painters Revolted by Government, Art Union

File photo of an exhibition at the 6 Shipka Str. building which has been the subject of a lengthy legal dispute between the Artists' Union and Sofia University. Photo by BGNES

A decision on the part of the Union of Bulgarian Artists to award honorary memberships to PM Boyko Borisov and Minister of Culture Vezhdi Rashidov has provoked the ire of key Union members.

Saturday Prof. Velislav Minekov, chair of the control committee of the Union of Bulgarian Artists, made a statement to the media denouncing the decision as "servile and shameless."

In a prior statement, the Bulgarian government had said that PM Borisov and Minister Rashidov will obtain the honor for "having actively aided" the Union in a legal dispute it had with Sofia University over the ownership of a key building in central Sofia.

"I consider this decision as unworthy, groundless and made under the pressure of the party which rules Bulgaria at the moment. Such kowtowing in front of acting politicians engaged in election campaigning is a slap in the faces of the many worthy members of our Union," stated Minekov.

The Artists' Union control committee chair also adds that the decision for the honorary memberships of Borisov and Rashidov has been taken without the competion of the due procedures.

According to Minekov, the Union of Bulgarian Painters has not resorted to such placation of the powers that be even during the pre-1989 communist period in Bulgaria.

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