"THIS UNIQUE AND WONDERFUL PROJECT IS AT THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE"
Marine Martirosyan
Octobe r 10, 2009
In May 2002 an agreement was executed between the Armenian
government and the Cafesjian Family Foundation, according to
which Gerard Cafesjian would sponsor and build the Cafesjian
Museum [in Yerevan]. The deadline of finishing the construction
was 2007. According to the agreement, during these five years the
foundation would be exempted from all taxes. The government also gave
11 hectares of land surrounding the Cascade to the foundation. The
[Tamanyan Park across the] Cascade was given to the museum for using
purposes only. The Cascade and the 11 hectares of land surrounding
the Cascade was government’s investment in the Cafesjian Museum
project. The museum project was controlled by the Cafesjian Family
Foundation, represented by the Vice President of the foundation John
Waters. The foundation includes non-profit foundations as well as
business entities (for instance, CS Media, Cascade Bank, etc.). Seven
years have passed since the execution of this agreement but the museum
is not built yet. Even more, now there are problems in this foundation
and some people have been fired, including John Waters. According
to our information, John Waters’ Deputy, Edward Balassanian, the
head of the Center for Contemporary Experimental Art (CCEA) was also
fired. However the latter told us that he had not been fired but has
resigned by his own request and since March 2009. He has worked at
the Cafesjian Museum Foundation from June 2002 until March 1, 2009.
– However you worked for the foundation until March 1, 2009,
year 2009 is coming to an end but the museum has not been built as
yet. Furthermore, there are persistent rumors and even exposes in
the press accusing you, the President of Armenia TV Bagrat Sargsyan
and the head of the foundation from the US John Waters.
Even recently there were rumors that John Waters and Bagrat Sargsyan
are simply bankrupting Gerard Cafesjian. Why did the implementation
of the project fail if so much money was spent?
– I don’t want to discuss the innuendoes and rumors on people and I
don’t want to waste time on it. This is all I have to say about John
Waters and Bagrat Sargsyan activities. As for the suspension of the
museum construction, there were two main reasons for it. The first
reason was connected with the management of the foundation, as a result
of which development of the project was let out of control. The second
reason is that they made a project for Mr. Cafesjian which exceeded
the intended cost by 3-4 times. According to Gerard Cafesjian’s plans,
the budget of the museum would amount to 30 million dollars, but they
presented a project amounting to 150 million.
– You can build more than five museums in Yerevan with 150 million
dollars.
– Yes. It is really possible to build a museum with 20-30 million
dollars as Mr. Cafesjian had planned initially. In 2002 he planned
to spend 25 million for the museum, and another 5 million for
reconstructing of the Cascade, which was given to him in a dilapidated
and very poor condition. So the total budget was set at 30 million
dollars.
– Didn’t they show the second version of the project to Mr. Cafesjian?
– The project was managed by John Waters. He was in charge of
managing the architect and it was his fault. I was only in charge of
construction works, i.e. they had to give me the project and I had
to implement it.
– What were your official duties?
– I was not in charge of the design of the museum project. I was in
charge of managing utilization of the entire complex and the routines
of the foundation. I was in charge of reconstructing the Cascade
(project design and construction) as well as construction of the new
museum based on the project of the architect. As you know I completely
renovated the Cascade. The museum is another story…
– Were you in charge of making the main budget of construction works?
– During seven years every month we presented financial accounting
on how much money we received and spent on different parts of
the project (more than 20 separate line-items), we also submitted
the budget and calculations for the following month with the same
details. However in the initial budget of 30 million they did not
take into consideration the salaries and the operational expenses
of the Cascade complex. According to my calculations, annually about
700 thousand dollar was spent on salaries. Every month we paid about
3-4 thousand dollars for electricity. I even cut down the expenses
for electricity by installing laser lights on the escalators (which
had to work continuously) in order to operate them whenever a person
approaches.
Otherwise we would have to pay 7-8 thousand dollars per month for
electricity alone. I really received rundown and broken equipments. We
repaired everything. The structure was leaking water all over. We
had to remove the stone coverings and install waterproofing. We
had to spend a lot of money on these works. I have all necessary
documentation for these expenses.
You said that some people think I am guilty. Now I will present the
list of the expenses, all of which are documented. In the period
of June 2002 – March 2009 the expenses and investments of the
Cafesjian museum foundation in Yerevan are as follows: salaries
(annual salaries amounted to 700 thoousand dollars) – 4.900.000,
current expenses, such as utility payments, public relations, etc. –
1.400.000 dollars, reconstruction, renovation and landscaping of the
Cascade and Tamanyan Park – 11.800.000 dollars, museum construction –
4.800.000 dollars, advance purchase of metal and cement – 4.000.000
dollars, removal of real estate encumbrances – 3.000.000 dollars,
other expenses – 2.900.000 dollars. It should be noted that the
expenses of the Cafesjian Museum Foundation made in the United States
are not included in this list.
Above mentioned expenses include construction of state of the art
depositaries in the territory of "Hayfilm" [studios] to store the
collection of Mr. Cafesjian in safe and proper climatic conditions. We
have also built a big modern greenhouse in the territory of "Hayfilm"
to cultivate the flowers to decorate the Tamanyan Park and surrounding
areas of the Cascade. We used to spend about 20 thousand dollars
every year to buy seeds for these flowers, which we would save since
the greenhouse would produce several folds of what we would need
ourselves. The excess would be sold in free market. By the way,
Mr. Cafesjian appreciated and highly encouraged this initiative.
I should add that during the last two years senseless additional
unnecessary works have been done at already renovated parts of
the Cascade. In 2007 a new architect named David Hutson was hired,
who destructed renovations I had made at the Tamanyan Park and the
Cascade. He did redecoration of the exhibition halls.
For example, changed the slanted ceilings to horizontal ones, installed
frosted glass windows, etc. while renovation of all of the halls had
been completed and they were ready for exhibitions. When I got this
job, the exhibition halls did not even have windows. I installed
new windows. However, the new architect replaced these windows and
specified frosted glasses which were very expensive. Furthermore,
the new architect decided to dig a big hole in the place of the
museum because he wanted the basement of the museum to consist of two
floors. According to the initial project, the building’s basement was
supposed to be one floor. We spent so much money for digging this
hole which was very disproportional in comparison with the initial
budget of the building. We spent 4,629,000 dollars on the earthworks
which included digging this hole.
During digging the initial hole we met a thick layer of solid basalt
stone. We had to spend a lot of money to dig this thick layer of
stone. Any experienced architect knows that digging stone layers
is more expensive than constructing a new building. As an architect
I realized that in such a situation the work has to be stopped and
the project needed to be revised accordingly, but we were forced to
obey and agree with their decision without argument. Now this hole
is fully built from the inside. What Hutson did was senseless. He
presented a project which Mr. Cafesjian naturally could not agree with.
– What is the status of this process now?
– Mr. Cafesjian did not plan to spend 150 million dollars on the
museum and he is right. I have heard that he will come to Yerevan in
November. His visit has been delayed about 4-5 times. In one occasion
he had even rented a plane and wanted to visit Armenia with several
senators and high ranking officials to take part in the opening
ceremony of the museum. But his visit was delayed several time as
the architect was not able to provide drawings in time, as a result
of which we were not able to finish the construction works. Now it
seems that they are working on the Tamanyan Park, they have brought
the statue of the Roman Gladiator to the park and have installed
benches. They are trying to finish the works. I have also heard that
they are planning to organize exhibitions in some of the halls of
the Cascade.
– Will they be able to?
– I think they can finish the works fast if the quality of work is
made secondary.
– Have you ever met Mr. Gerard Cafesjian?
– Once I met him in New York. We talked for about 2-3 hours. This
conversation was not connected with the museum. I saw him in Yerevan
several times too, but I did not have the opportunity to meet with
him. My contact with him was only through J. Waters. There have been
cases when I wrote letters about the situation and my expressed my
concerns to Mr. Cafesjian, but I did not receive any answers from
him. I sent the copies of these letters both to John Waters and Michael
De Marsche (the executive director of the foundation since 2007).
I was especially concerned of the Center for Contemporary Experimental
Art (CCEA). This was my second problem. When I was hired 7 years
ago, my salary was three times less than the salary of a person
of my qualifications in New York. I worked for seven years without
salary increase. Three years ago I agreed with John Waters that if
Mr. Cafesjian sponsored the CCEA, I would work until the end of my life
without asking for salary increase. I made this agreement with J. John
verbally without any document. But the situation and relations inside
the foundation started worsening. I immediately informed Mr. Waters
that I could not work with the architect any more. I also told him
that if they thought I was an obstacle I could resign. He disagreed
and said that they will take care of the problem. I continued to
work. But 8 months before my final departure on March 1, 2009, they
violated the agreement concerning the CCEA and stopped the financial
support. Mr. Waters informed me with a mail that the reason of stopping
the sponsorship was connected with the financial crisis and they would
reinstate the support soon. Based on this promise I decided to use my
family savings to pay for CCEA expenses as I believed they would return
these funds, as promised. They have not paid 75.000 dollars for those
eight months yet. I have no documents, thus I cannot sue them. But,
even if I had a document I would not do that because Gerard Cafesjian
is a great philanthropist and I would not insult him by doing so,
even if they were not fair to me.
– Which documents did John Waters sign and which ones did Bagrat
Sargsyan?
– Some areas surrounding the Cascade were encumbered upon by private
parties. The transaction documents on purchasing these lands, houses
and garages to remove the encumbrances were signed by Mr. Sargsyan
and Mr. Waters.
– Why did not your letters reach Mr. Cafesjian?
– In December 2008 when I saw that the project of the museum was rather
big and the situation was not good, I sent an action plan in a letter
to Mr. Cafesjian and described what we had to do to get out of the
situation. I wrote a timeline and informed that I would finish the
museum and the Cascade works within three years at a budget determined
by him, with the condition that I had to be in charge of managing the
project. I addressed the letter to Mr. Cafesjian and sent the copies to
Waters and De Marsche. I have never gone over people’s heads. We were
told that the health condition of Mr. Cafesjian was not good and we
were told not to write letters to him and inform that the situation
was drastic in order not to put emotional pressure on him. Thus,
apparently John did not pass this letter. Mr. De Marsche after this
letter totally changed his attitude towards me. The person who used
to tell me that they needed me, changed his attitude and even did not
greet me or invite me to meetings. In February I told John about this
situation and presented my resignation.
Eventually my letter reached Mr. Cafesjian. I suspected that John had
not sent it to Mr. Cafesjian. I sent the same letter to Mr. Cafesjian’s
adviser in April and mentioned in it that I it had been sent to him
in December. They replied that they had not received any letter from
me. Later the adviser informed me that Mr. Cafesjian had read the
letter and appreciated my proposal. He asked me to stay in Yerevan in
May in order to meet with Mr. Cafesjian’s new representative. When
that person came, his mind was already poisoned. We talked for two
hours and he eventually realized that there had been a conspiracy,
and apologized to me several times.
They cannot accuse me of anything. I stand behind all of my signatures,
except in two cases: One relates to the sale of reinforcement metal
and the other is removal of land encumbrances, i.e. the transactions
of buying the lands around the territory. Persons responsible for
these transactions were Bagrat Sargsyan and John Waters. I did
not have any participation in it. The other relates to the sale
of the metal. The metal was sold by direct order of John Waters (I
have the letter). When the project was ready, I asked the director
of Haypetnakhagits (ArmStateProject) to provide the list of the
metals necessary for the implementation of the project. We bought
this metal from Ukraine by the approval of John Waters and paid 770
dollars per ton for it. We bought 4.800 tons of metal. It was not
a risky decision because if we did not use a part of that metal we
could sell it anyway. The fact is that when Mr. Cafesjian decided
to make the project smaller, we had 3000 tones of additional metal,
which we did not need anymore. Mr. Waters and Mr. De Marsche initially
ordered us to sell the metal for not less than 1200 dollars per ton
with the condition that the money had to be paid in cash. At that
time we owed 2-3 million dollars to our contractors who asked us
to give this metal at a little cheaper price which would also clear
our debts. Some of them were prepared to pay up to 1000-1100 dollars
per ton for this metal. In one week, however, we received a written
instruction from Waters to sell the metal at 770 dollars per ton
to the same intermediary company, through which we had imported the
metal to Armenia from Ukraine. What could I do? I had no choice but
to obey my superior’s order.
– Is the crisis the reason why Mr. Cafesjian controls his money
now? According to our information, about two months ago he fired
180 people.
– It is really a very sad story. These people have worked for the
foundation for many years with great care and diligence, and now
they are faced with losing their only source of livelihood because of
the crisis. This, probably is the most cruel, but inevitable outcome
of capitalism…
I remember about three years ago Ross Vartian, the director
of Cafesjian’s lobbying organization in Washington, said to me
during a casual conversation that "When they show Mr. Cafesjian the
spread-sheet of the funds spent on his projects, he will have a heart
attack". Mr. Cafesjian has invested a lot of money on "Hayfilm", the
museum, alternative energy research organization and other projects,
which either do not function as they should, or are not completed
as yet. I think such report has been sent to Mr. Cafesjian, and it
is the reason why he made the above mentioned changes. I think it
is not the end. There will be more serious developments. I am really
sorry for these turn of the events. This unique and wonderful project
is at the verge of collapse. It does not matter whether Balassanian
will finish the project or someone else. The important thing is that
huge investments have been made in the cultural sector in Armenia,
which has to be supported and helped to bring them to a desirable
conclusion. I say this with utmost sincerity and best wishes.