After the Ottoman conquest of the Georgian Principality of Samtskhe, of which Klarjeti was part, in the 16th century, Christianity went in decline in the area. In 1664, the merchant Amirjan Ievangulishvili brought the icon of Ancha to Tbilisi, where it was acquired by the Georgian catholicos Domenti III for 2,000 silver coins for the newly refurbished church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Tbilisi, henceforth known as the Anchiskhati church. The icon remained one of the most venerated relics of Georgian Christianity until after the Soviet takeover of Georgia it was moved to the National Art Museum of Georgia in the 1920s. The Anchiskhati church was closed down and would only be reopened in the last years of the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Since then, there have been repeated calls from the Orthodox Christians to return the icon to the church’s property.