In 813, the Presiding Prince Ashot I Curopolate fled the Arab oppression in Tbilisi and went to the southern Georgian province of Klarjeti. There, he established the new principality of Tao-Klarjeti. This principality played a crucial role in the history of Georgia during the ninth and tenth centuries, although Prince Ashot was not the first to set up home there. Before Ashot, men and women who sought seclusion for a ‘holy life’ had traveled to Klarjeti; monks and nuns led by medieval Georgian monastic leader Gregory of Khandzta (759–861). The intensive monastic colonization of these lands was one of the strongest factors that contributed to the rise of the Principality/Kingdom of Tao-Klarjeti.

Lado Gudiashvili (1896-1980) is one of the most prominent representatives of Georgian modernist art and the Tbilisi avant-garde, famed for his creative vision and unique style of painting. Lado Gudiashvili was born and raised in a historic neighborhood of Tbilisi’s multicultural milieu at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1910, Gudiashvili enrolled at the School of Painting and Sculpture, which had been established in Tbilisi in 1902 under the auspices of the Caucasian Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts. His teacher there was the renowned Tbilisi caricaturist Oscar Schmerling. In addition to honing his skills at painting and drawing, under the guidance of Iacob Nikoladze Gudiashvili also delved into the art of sculpture.

Ivane Javakhishvili, the rector of Tbilisi University, had stated his viewpoint about such an evasive measure in mid-February, and Ekvtime Takaishvili, his friend and the university’s founder, echoed it: "If the treasure is not hidden, the Bolsheviks will steal everything; we know very well what they did to Georgian churches."