“Any small but careless gesture and everything is ruined! The icons get covered with this particular kind of soot. Sure, we can get it off again millimeter by millimeter, but that would take us a couple of centuries,” Gennady Popov, the Director of the Andrey Rublev Museum, told RT.

A new law currently being debated could have all religious artifact and property taken from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917 returned.

Since the early 1990s, the Church is allowed to use all buildings and sites for religious purposes again, but technically they still do not own most of them.

“The majority of churches where religious services are held do not belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. That is why they can still be sold – thank God not the functioning ones, but there have been some very unpleasant cases,” Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vladimir Legoida told RT.

The Ministry of Culture’s proposal, however, has sparked outrage among Russia’s leading arts figures, who have written an open letter to President Dmitry Medvedev urging him to intervene.

Museums argue the most important thing is to preserve the cultural and historical heritage of the nation.

They claim the Church does not have enough funds or enough security to ensure the sites are safe.

“In principle, I don't care who'll be the owner in legal terms. I just don't want to see these artifacts destroyed. It's all national heritage. Just like the pyramids in Egypt, like the papal churches in Rome. But here, we keep arguing and arguing!” Popov said.

Nevertheless, in some cases, cultural heritage and religion manage to come together and live side by side.

Another invaluable historical artifact, the Novodevichy Convent, was built in 1524 and saw history unfolding. Within its walls Boris Godunov was elected tsar, then the convent served as a prison to Princess Sofia and in the early 19th century it survived the invasion of Napoleon.

Take a look around the convent in our Panoramas section

The Novodevichy Convent’s significance as a religious site and a national heritage site is undisputed. Therefore, to avoid quarrels, it was decided to make the centuries-old fortress a hybrid. Owned by the State Historical Museum, which makes sure all artifacts are restored and preserved correctly, it is also a functioning convent where every icon and every building have a spiritual meaning for believers.