The paper said that Karakalpakstan State Art Museum named after Igor Savetsky is an “absolute gem”.

Known also as the Museum of Forbidden Art, this is the world’s foremost collection of 20th century Russian avant-garde painting and includes important works by Sokolov, Komarovskiy and the Amaravella group.

The artworks were collected by the curator of the Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art in the 1960s. He acquired banned works from persecuted Soviet artists, often for little or no money, conserving and ultimately displaying them in this remote Central Asian outpost.

The list also includes South Sudan, Meroe (Sudan), Mashhad (Iran), Kakheti (Georgia), Kanha Tiger Reserve (India), Socotra (Yemen), Zanskar (India), Kamchatka (Russia), Cerro de los Siete Colores (Argentina) and Listvyanka (Russia).